


Family is an alloy formed from many parts

by CenturionsofRome



Series: Chosen of the Bijuu [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Beta? What's that?, Families of Choice, Gen, The Bijuu were dealt a bad hand, The clock to Armageddon is already ticking, cannon derailment, cannon-fanfic crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 11:08:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 34,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28777314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CenturionsofRome/pseuds/CenturionsofRome
Summary: One of Minato's favorite pastimes is experimenting with fuuinjutsu, and he often gave his more dangerous inventions to Namikaze Naruto to seal awayin a vault only the Chosen could access. But after the Elder Naruto died, Minato was far more lax with security than he should have been, allowing a traitorous shinobi to steal one of his experiments and use it against Uzumaki Naruto and Kurama, shattering reality.Now human and Bijuu are stranded in a reality where everything has gone wrong, from Madara finding Kurama first, to jinchuuriki program being used, to someone hunting down the Bijuu to ressurrect the Juubi, having replaced their local counterparts and with no way back.Good thing both are at their best when under pressure.
Relationships: Kyuubi | Nine-tails | Kurama & Uzumaki Naruto
Series: Chosen of the Bijuu [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1423531
Comments: 110
Kudos: 70





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a spin off from Family is Reforged, with the divergence being the beginning of chapter 2.

Kurama stirred from sleep, curled against Naruto’s right side with the outer wall of the Compound against his paws, with his sons Kin and Dai curled against Naruto’s left as he felt a chakra flare from close by.

 _I’ll take a look,_ Naruto said, and Kurama sent his acknowledgement before returning to a half-asleep doze as his twelve year old Chosen extracted himself from the fuzzy pile of kitsunes, to Dai’s drowsy grumbling annoyance.

 _Kurama!_ Naruto screamed down their mental link a moment later, followed near instantaneously by his cry of pain, and he snapped awake, as did Kin and Dai.

His sons were first through the door by dint of being closer to it than him, but if he was any closer behind them he would have trod on their tails as he enlarged his form to the point he barely fit through the door, unfurling his chakra and letting his rage be known to all of Konoha. Emerging from the bedroom he saw a shinobi dressed in Konoha mission garb throw a scroll radiating chakra at Naruto like an exploding tag. Kurama had no idea what the scroll would do, and he had no intention of finding out. The ancient kitsune snapped off a ball of foxfire at the scroll, intending to knock it off course, as Naruto was off balance and had no way of dodging in time.

 _He missed_.

In an unfortunate tumble the scroll turned end on towards Kurama, and his foxfire missed it by a mater of millimeters, but miss it it did. The shinobi’s aim was true, and the scroll would have impacted Naruto’s chest had the blonde boy not grabbed it before it hit him. The seal on the scroll activated with a surge of chakra

And reality Shattered.

* * *

When reality reformed Naruto found himself standing on a futon, the scroll in his hand charred black and disintegrating into ash powder, its secrets forever lost. Tense, he remained in a half crouch, heart hammering adrenalin through his veins, though he calmed somewhat when Kurama manifested next to him, shoulder rubbing against soft fuzzy shoulder and chakra suppressed, as the pair warily surveyed the small one room apartment they stood in. The apartment was plain, with few furnishings, and what furnishings there were were old, worn, and ill maintained, as were the walls, floor, and ceiling. There was a large poster of the Konoha symbol above the head of the futon, but that was the only decoration mounted on the walls, with no photographs, paintings or pictures to be found, the apartment clearly spartan in nature and embellishment. There was a single pair of windows set in the far wall, blinds open and letting in star and moon light.

“We’re not in Konoha anymore,” Kurama rumbled quietly.

“You sure?” Naruto whispered back.

“There’s too few emotional signatures nearby. Whatever settlement we’re in is a good sized town, but it’s no city like Konoha.”

Cautiously, as though a hidden seal could spring to life at any second, Naruto slowly made his way to the window in the apartment while Kurama began to sniff the futon and other objects in easy reach of his nose. Looking out the window Naruto confirmed that they were not in Konoha, for while he couldn’t see above the neighboring buildings said buildings were made of the wrong composition and style, built of wood and plaster with sharp corners rather than seamless stone called up by jutsus with rounded corners and edges of recent building styles. Then he looked beyond towards the mountainside in the distance and froze.

“Ummm, Kurama?”

Kurama padded over to the window, claws clicking on the floorboards. It took only moments for him to notice the four Hokages staring back at them from the mountainside.

“Oh, that’s not good,” the Bijuu murmured.

“Genjutsu?” Naruto asked doubtfully.

Any genjutsu capable of spoofing even Kurama’s empathic abilities – a legendarily difficult task in of itself – without tripping the defenses of the seal that guarded and bonded their souls was… _theoretically_ not impossible, but…

“Unlikely,” Kurama responded, “but I’m going to trip a purge and then a diagnostic just in case.”

Naruto grimaced. A purge would break any genjutsu short of one created by the Mangekyo Sharingan – that had been tested extensively – but Naruto wouldn’t be able to use chakra and Kurama would be confined to within the seal until it finished and Naruto would be sore and achy for roughly half a day. A diagnostic wasn’t anywhere near as good as having a seal master inspect the seal, but it would let them know if any part of the seal was damaged, though it would also keep Kurama sealed within until it finished.

“I’ll see what I can find here then,” Naruto said.

Kurama nodded, dispelled his avatar, and Naruto winced as a section of the seal over his lower right lung burned, the searing heat quickly spreading throughout his body as a mixture of mortal, Bijuu, and nature chakra scoured his chakra system while the rest of the seal pulsed with uncomfortable pressure as the diagnostic got to work.

Glancing around the room once more Naruto walked over to the small food and drink stained table flush against one of the room’s corners and began to look through the papers on it. Shinobi Academy homework it looked like, filled out in barely legible scribble, though Naruto hadn’t seen this particular assignment before. Rummaging through the homework he looked for a name, only to stare in absolute confusion at his own name, yet not written in his own hand writing. Setting the paper aside to talk it over with Kurama, as Naruto had no idea what to make of it, he decided to check the battered wardrobe, hoping that it would provide more clues, and also because he was wearing only a pair of orange pajama pants which were not suitable for wandering around a settlement in if he wanted to avoid attention. Opening it he found a set of bright orange track suits, but he held one up to himself he realized that they were at least a size too small for him, and the same was true for the undergarments he found.

Frowning he brushed his left hand against the purge section of his seal to check that it had finished, which it had, and fading pressure suggested that the diagnostic was winding down too, he sluggishly shapeshifted into the form of a blonde fox, gritting his teeth against the body wide smacked-elbow-nerve levels of pain caused by the after effects of the purge, and began to take in the scent of the room.

Whoever lived here had a scent that was near identical to Naruto’s own, but was in somewhat poor health. Not injured, or sick, but definitely not healthy either. Unfortunately, that was the limit that Naruto could determine from scent due to lack of experience, other than that the scent was strongest and most recent on the futon, which was also the oldest location of Naruto’s own scent in the room, indicating that he had been teleported there.

Naruto had just finished sniffing the futon when the diagnostic finished and Kurama manifested next to him.

“Diagnostic reported no errors,” Kurama reported, sounding worried, which made Naruto dread what the fox had to say next, “I’ve been paying attention to your senses and I have a theory about what happened that I really don’t like.”

“Which is?” Naruto asked with apprehension.

Kurama took a deep breath.

“You know that there are some secrets we Bijuu know that we will never willingly speak of due to how dangerous they are, barring extreme circumstances like these.” Naruto nodded. “This is one of them. This isn’t our home reality, and we seem to have replaced our local counterparts.”

Naruto swallowed as ice traveled down his spine and dread pooled in his gut. He didn’t quite know what Kurama meant by “home reality”, but he could take a guess, and he didn’t particularly want Kurama to explain.

“How do we get home?” He asked.

There was a long pause before Kurama reluctantly answered.

“I don’t think _we_ can. I certainly don’t know enough to create a seal capable of transporting us across realities, much less target a specific one.”

“But surely tou-chan can help! We just need to find –“

“Naruto,” Kurama interrupted sadly, “There are no pictures of Minato, Kushina, or Remon on the walls, and local you was living alone.”

Naruto stared at Kurama in confusion, dread crystalizing with spikes of horror at the back of his mind. “You… Kurama, you can’t mean…”

“Do you think they would have let you live alone if they still lived?”

Naruto keened, for he could not cry in his current form of a fox.

Kurama pressed his body against Naruto’s flank, and his soul curled comfortingly around his Chosen’s within their seal, the ancient kitsune giving Naruto a quick lick between his fuzzy golden ears.

“Have hope, Naruto, our Minato and Kushina will not abandon us. It will likely be years, but I have faith that they will find us.”

“Years?” Naruto asked quietly.

“Unless there’s a prototype seal lying around in one of the Uzumaki jutsu vaults, and I wouldn’t bet against that, yeah. It’ll probably take a few years for them to make a seal from scratch. If there is a prototype somewhere I’d guess that it would only take a year or so, but there’s nothing we can do about it in either case right now.”

“So what _can_ we do?”

“Survive until they reach us. If you mean right now, make a bunch of shadow clones and have them scout out the town while we continue looking through the apartment.”

“Right,” Naruto said, regaining control over his emotions with something to focus on, “right.”

He shapeshifted back to human form and began to spawn shadow clones, one of them opening the window as they shapeshifted into various forms, cats, foxes, dogs, and a variety of human forms ranging in age from child to adult, before exiting the apartment via the now open window into the town whose only relation to Naruto’s home being its name and geographic location.

Kurama took a step forward and paused.

“Actually, I should check with my siblings,” he said, “I doubt we will be able to reach the Bijuu we know, but hopefully I’ll be able to contact their local counterparts and get some information from them.”

“I’ll keep searching the apartment,” Naruto said.

Kurama dispersed his avatar.

* * *

Kurama opened his eyes in the Seishan Sekai and searched for the unbreakable connections to the other Bijuu. He immediately noticed the void where Koukuro and Son Goku’s presences should be. They hadn’t been slain and were in the process of reconstituting themselves, they were _gone_.

“Shit,” he hissed, and began to probe the sundered link to his brothers.

* * *

Naruto dropped the amusingly toad shaped wallet back onto the futon from under which he had found it, having reinserted the fifteen-hundred and change ryo back into it, and walked over to inspect the calendar hanging on the wall next to the sliding door. He quickly noticed the scribbled note on the first of the month saying “Rent due, nine-hundred ryo”. Naruto didn’t know enough about apartment rents to say if that was expensive, average, or cheap, but he made a mental note to keep at least that much in ryo reserve if they wanted to continue using this apartment as a base. Managing mission expenses had been a major component of his training at the academy, or at least his version of it, and he had passed with a fairly high, though not perfect, score. Looking further down the calendar he raised his eyebrows at seeing “Final Exam!!!!!” penciled in for tomorrow, which seemed strange since Naruto had completed his own finals yesterday. Then a thought occurred to him and after looking around to see a battered old alarm clock next to the futon showing that it was several hours after midnight he realized that the finals were supposed to take place today.

Glancing around Naruto frowned when he didn’t see any obvious place for stashing weapons, as he had no idea what the tests would require, as, and he was forcibly reminded of this whenever he looked out the window, this was not the Konoha he had lived in. Then his shadow clones who had shapeshifted themselves into foxes began to be forcibly dispelled one after another.

* * *

Koukuro and Son Goku were well and truly dead, and there was only one thing that could do that to the Bijuu.

Someone was trying to resurrect the Juubi.

This wasn’t a new threat, Kurama knew that Zetsu had been working towards that since before the Bijuu were even born, but that someone was now succeeding was extremely alarming.

He needed information.

Unfortunately, his best source currently was his surviving siblings. He thought for a moment about who to contact, before the elder Naruto had bonded with him all of his relationships with his siblings had been… antagonistic to say the least. Kurama was self-aware enough these days to privately admit that he had been the one to burn the majority of those bridges, though Shukaku and Son Goku had their own fair share of the blame.

But of the Bijuu to contact Saiken was probably the best bet. The slug was perpetually cheerful and quite chatty, and it took a lot to truly anger him. Naturally, Kurama had managed that multiple times, thankfully Saiken wasn’t the type to hold a grudge, unlike himself. The ancient kitsune sent a tendril of chakra down his connection to the equally ancient slug, the Bijuu’s equivalent to asking someone if they had a moment to talk. The response was near instantaneous.

“Kurama!” Saiken said happily, appearing in front of Kurama on their mental plane, “You managed to get the other half of your chakra back. I thought you said it had been sealed into the Shinigami, how’d you manage that?”

That completely derailed Kurama’s train of thought.

“What?”

* * *

Naruto frowned at the half-dozen shruiken and two kunai he had found scattered around the apartment and laid out on the desk. The shruiken were all completely unusable, having manufacturing defects, were bent, damaged, or some combination of the above. There was no way any of them would fly straight. The kunai suffered the same problems as the shruikens, and were equally as useless for throwing, but they would make for passable knives once Naruto corrected the horrific attempt someone had made in sharpening them.

Naruto was extremely dissatisfied with the available equipment currently available to him. No clothes that fit him, weapons only fit for scrap, and –

Naruto’s frown deepened, and he began to check the cupboards for food. That turned up three packets of instant ramen, five of instant pasta, and two of instant rice, all way past their sell-by dates, some by months, and two had ruptured due to mishandling.

So no food worth eating either. Naruto was certain that eating anything currently in the apartment would give him food poisoning if he didn’t have a Chosen’s constitution.

There was nothing left in the apartment to investigate, and as Kurama was still busy talking with the other Bijuu, Naruto grabbed both kunai and left to investigate the rest of the apartment building, he would at least need to know where the clothes washers were if he was going to stay here for any length of time.

He didn’t notice that he moved through the building exactly like how Dan-sensei and Iruka-sensei had taught him to move through enemy territory, kunai in hand.

* * *

Saiken stilled and Looked at Kurama, clearly seeing that Kurama had all of his chakra and that there was no spiritual scarring on his soul.

“That didn’t happen to you,” Saiken states, “And given how you’re not broadcasting your hate and rage everywhere, you’re not the Kurama I know.”

Kurama really should have expected that, because, despite Shukaku doing his best to provide evidence to the contrary, none of the Bijuu are stupid.

“I’m not the Kurama native to this reality,” Kurama admits, stating the obvious.

“Like that fellow from seven hundred years ago?” Saiken asks, referring to one of the many failed attempts to enslave the Bijuu, notable only for that the would-be enslaver had jumped realities in order to escape all the people hunting him. That was also what showed the Bijuu that jumping between realties was possible.

“Not... quite. Given that there is no presence of my local counterpart, I’m pretty sure that I and my… partner swapped places with our local selves.”

“’Partner’, huh?” Saiken asked wryly, “The Kurama I knew would never refer to the human he was sealed within like that.”

“Let me guess,” Kurama huffed, “It was always insults, raging, and promises to eat them and all their loved ones, right?”

Kurama knew what he used to be like.

“Yep!” Saiken answered with a laugh in his voice, before sobering and glancing towards where their brothers should have been.

The ancient fox grimaced.

“Yeah, if we’re going to be able to do anything about that I need to know how our pasts have diverged. Thankfully the divergence point seems to have been relatively recent, after the founding of the hidden villages at least. Who was it that dragged me out of seclusion?”

“Madara.”

Kurama resisted the urge to start swearing.

“I take Uzumaki Mito used the Jinchuuriki program?”

“She used you to make herself into the first.”

The cursing that came from Kurama was long, loud, and inventive.

“That’s more like the Kurama I know,” Saiken said wryly.

Kurama growled at him.

"Alright, give me the rundown of what’s happened since then.”

* * *

The sun was beginning to dawn when Chosen and Bijuu finished their investigations and shared what they had learned via memory transfer. Naruto sat cross-legged on the futon with his back to the wall, Kurama curled up in his lap in his fox form, Naruto quietly petting him as they communicated silently.

 ** _It seems like everything that could have gone wrong, did,_** Kurama thought-spoke to Naruto.

 _Yeah,_ Naruto replied, _How are we going to fix this?_

**_With great difficulty and over many years. For today, though, I think that you should attend the academy finals._ **

_Really? I had thought…_

**_We don’t even know who’s alive, kit. And given that Sarutobi the Complacent retook the hat after Minato died facing a sharigan controlled me…_ **

Naruto grimaced. _I’m surprised Konoha hasn’t fallen._

 ** _While his reputation is more than deserved, Sarutobi isn’t nearly as bad at being Hokage as that, his title is “the complacent”, not “the incompetent”,_** Kurama said wryly, **_But at the same time we cannot trust him._**

_But attending the academy in what I’m wearing?_

**_If the academy is anything like back home the exams are going to start at roughly the same time that stores open, so I doubt you’ll have time before the exams to buy new clothes, especially since we have no idea where stores that sell what we need are yet._ **

_But I’ll burst out any of the clothes here!_

**_Use a henge or grow fur,_** Kurama said without any sympathy.

Naruto frowned.

_That reminds me, all of my clones who shifted into foxes were popped by someone._

**_Just the foxes?_ **

_Yeah._

**_Other than Konoha being on alert, I have no idea what to make of that._ **

The pair were silent for a long moment before Naruto sighed.

_I’ll have to leave now if I want to find the academy in time. What will you be doing?_

**_Scout out the town and surrounding environment. See if I can find where ever Minato and Kushina lived, and if it’s still habitable or suitable for use as a safehouse._ **

_If someone’s hunting foxes you’ll need to alter your form._

Kurama growled in annoyance, but shifted his avatar’s form from fox to a lanky wolfhound mix that, with a bit of acting on Kurama's part, could be mistaken for someone's nindog, though he maintained his coloring, and clambered out of Naruto’s lap. Naruto shuffled forwards and froze, before bursting into tears. One of his clones had found the Memorial Stone, which had an order of magnitude more names carved into it than back home, including Dan’s, Minato’s, and Kushina’s, and just before it dispelled it saw Kakashi approaching, clearly missing an eye.

Kurama nuzzled his Chosen, causing Naruto to tightly hug him to his chest and bury his face in Kurama’s fur.

 ** _We’ll survive this kit,_** Kurama promised, **_and we’ll see them again._**

He fervently prayed that he could keep that promise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naruto has a distinctly negative view of Sarutobi due to having overheard several rants by Minato about Hiruzen’s screw-ups. The reason Naruto is much larger than his cannon counterpart is because OTL Naruto suffered from severe malnutrition growing up, resulting in his short height, and probably would have died from food related issues if Kurama hadn’t been sealed in his gut. Family!Naruto, on the other hand, would be in excellent health even without Kurama’s assistance. The seal diagnostic works by checksum verification.


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto made his way down the street towards the Shinobi Academy, having found where it was due to a clone self-dispelling shortly after he left the apartment, struggling not to fidget with his clothes. He had grabbed the largest of the tracksuits in the apartment but he still had a seam up his butt sawing at his ass and his shoulders felt like they were being forced into his ribs while the rest of his body was being squeezed by the suit, threatening to turn his full body ace into a full body cramp. He felt like if he moved too much or too far or even _breathed_ too deeply the tracksuit was going to explode off him.

Naruto was less than a quarter of the way to the Shinobi Academy when he felt a sudden surge of hatred. Glancing around he saw a trio of old ladies glaring at him from across the street. Trying to get out of their sight, he accidentally blundered into a male civilian coming the other way.

“Watch where you’re going, demon,” the man snarled loudly, lashing out with a slap at Naruto.

Hampered by the extremely ill-fitting clothes and disoriented by the hatred directed at him Naruto failed to avoid the slap and was knocked on his rear. The overwhelming surge of hatred at him from everyone on the street who had suddenly realized he was there stole his breath and would have made him stumble had he been standing before Kurama suppressed his connection to the Bijuu’s emphatic ability.

Opening his mouth to apologize to the man he accidentally ran into, only for the man to shout over him

“Did I stutter? Get out of here you damn brat!”

He then lifted his leg to kick Naruto, but Naruto rolled to his feet, ignoring the popping of stitches from his clothing, and used chakra to enhance his leap into an ally.

 _I know that Saiken said that jinchuuriki were hated and feared,_ Naruto said, _but I wasn’t expecting it to be so…_

**_Yes, that was worse than I was expecting as well._ **

Naruto shuddered, and began to make his way through the back alleys towards the academy, taking care not to be seen by civilians. He would have preferred to run along the roofs, but that would guarantee that he would burst the seams on his clothes, so he resigned himself to taking the slow way.

* * *

Hearing the classroom door open Nara Shikamaru sleepily glanced over at it, ignoring the inane babble of his classmates, then sat up straight and looked again, drowsiness banished.

Naruto had just quietly entered the classroom. This was notable because the only times Naruto was this quiet when entering a room was when he had a prank coming, but the look on Naruto’s face was of silent wariness, not smothered anticipation, scanning the room for threats. Shikamaru didn’t miss how Naruto’s gaze lingered for a long moment on Mizuki, nor how his eyes narrowed at the sensei and his right hand drifted towards the kunai tied to his waist. In addition, Naruto had apparently gained several inches of height and filled out quite a bit overnight, to the point that his infamous orange tracksuit looked like it was about to tear off him.

Conclusion: this was not the Naruto Shikamaru knew.

Imposter? That made no sense. Naruto had no unusual clearances that Shikamaru knew off, and he knew that Naruto’s chakra was distinctive in both volume and flavor. Also if someone was going to replace Naruto they would have found someone who fit his clothes at least. And anyone with the henge skills to make their face identical to Naruto’s would be skilled enough to make their clothes appear to fit as well.

Jutsu gone wrong? Also extremely unlikely. The only size changing jutsus Shikamaru knew of belonged to the Akimichi, and those were clan secrets, not something that would ever be taught to Naruto.

Troublesome. This was going to bug him until he figured it out, wasn’t it?

Noticing Naruto sitting down in the back corner of the room, with his back and side against the walls, remarkably having not been noticed by anyone yet, Shikamaru hesitated for a moment before getting up and relocating to the desk next to Naruto.

“You’re not the same Naruto who walked out of here yesterday, are you?” he asked without preamble.

Naruto froze. That was all the answer the Nara needed.

“Thought so. What happened to the original Naruto?”

“I really, really hope we just swapped places,” Naruto answered quietly, “But I have no way of knowing. This whole situation is due to enemy action.”

Given how Naruto’s eyes flicked to Mizuki-sensei when he said that last bit…

“Mizuki-sensei was the enemy?”

“I don’t know if he’s the same here as back home, but I don’t know if he’s different either. And I really don’t like the malice I can feel from him.”

“You can feel malice?”

“I’m an empath.”

Shikamaru winced. He was well aware what the average opinion was about Naruto.

“Is there anyone else who will notice me being different?” Naruto asked.

“Just Iruka-sensei, and possibly the Hokage. No one else knows you well enough, or cares enough.”

“Sarutobi? Why would he – oh. Of course he would want to keep an eye on Konoha’s Jinchuuriki.”

Shikamaru made a mental note to ask his father what a jinchuuriki was and how it related to Naruto when he went home, but it was interesting to note that this Naruto apparently held the Third Hokage in poor regard.

“You’re a Jinchuuriki?”

“Technically no, but I’m similar enough in practice to fill the same role, which is all the Hokage will care about.”

Well didn’t that sentence open up a whole can of worms. Shikamaru wanted to question Naruto further when the bell rang for the exams to begin, and the senseis began to pass out the written portion of the exam.

* * *

 _I’m definitely going to fail this part_ , Naruto thought to Kurama, _half of these questions have little to no relevance to being a shinobi and I was doomed to fail the history section from the start._

**_Just do your best._ **

_Oooh, Rules for Shinobi? Rule One: There are no rules._

Kurama chuckled in amusement.

**_Accurate._ **

* * *

“And now for the ninjutsu part of the exam,” Iruka-sensei announced while Mizuki (Naruto wasn’t going to call the man sensei even in his head) went around collecting the exam papers, “In order to pass this part of the exam you must successfully perform all three jutsus: the substitution, the henge, and the bushin.”

Naruto frowned at that, and barely twitched at the burst of hate from Mizuki when the man collected his test. He could do the first two without issue, but the standard bushin was simple, fragile and destabilized if too much chakra was used, and that limit was far lower than the minimum amount of chakra Naruto could use, and in any case he could, and always did, use Shadow Clones, which were superior in almost every way to the standard bushin, but paid for that superiority with its high chakra cost. There was a reason no chuunin or jonin ever used the “standard” bushin.

He started to raise his hand only for Mizuki to snap

“Standard jutsus only, Uzumaki. Trying to use any of your ‘alternatives’ will see you automatically fail.”

Naruto grimaced but lowered his hand. Without the ability to use shadow clones he was definitely going to fail this part of the exam. He watched as, one by one, his classmates, most of whom he didn’t recognize, went to the front of the room and attempted the jutsus, most of them succeeding, proceeding in alphabetical order by family name. In due time he was called up.

Naruto calmly walked to the front of the room, ignoring the look that Iruka-sensei was giving him, the man obviously having noticed the differences in Naruto but not saying anything about it yet, and quickly and easily went through the hand seals for the substitution and henge jutsus – mainly to show that he knew them as he had both jutsus down to being able to cast them with a single seal – to Iruka-sensei’s surprise and Mizuki’s anger, before taking a deep breath to focus on trying to partition a small enough amount of chakra that the bushin wouldn’t instantly fail, despite almost certainly being futile. Frowning in concentration, he slowly and carefully went through the hand seals for the bushin, making sure that his chakra formed in the correct way before moving on to the next seal. Finishing the sequence the bushin popped into existence next to Naruto, looking like an extremely over-inflated carnival balloon version of Naruto for the split second the clone was stable before it ruptured with a loud bang.

“Uzumaki Naruto, fail,” Mizuki said, calm voice and bland expression contradicted by the malicious glee Naruto could feel from him and the resigned disappointment from Iruka-sensei.

Naruto returned to his seat and silently watched the rest of his classmates went through the ninjutsu exam before they were herded out into the academy’s yard for taijusu testing.

_Here’s hoping that I don’t tear my clothes so badly I end up in nothing but my underwear._

**_Just grow fur,_** was Kurama’s exasperated reply, **_I understand that clothes are useful for carrying things and for protection against the elements, but why you insist on squeezing yourself into those painfully too small clothes baffles me. It’s not like anyone will see anything if you make your fur long and thick enough._**

_I’m not sure that it’s a good idea to reveal anything we can do while Mizuki is in the room._

**_...You have a point._ **

Iruka-sensei announced that he was taking the first half the class, divided by family name, and Mizuki was taking the latter half, of which Naruto was apart of. His classmates were paired off, and he was matched with Sasuke. The fights proceeded in unison, two at a time, one per sensei, and Naruto watched with great interest.

They were… shockingly bad.

 _What have they been doing all this time? Any Year Fives could beat all of them,_ Naruto wondered.

**_I know that Minato did major overhauls of the Academy after you were born, but I didn’t realize it was this bad._ **

Then it was Naruto and Sasuke’s turn. Sasuke’s fangirls immediately started to cheer for the Last Uchiha, much to his annoyance and Naruto’s distain.

“This will be quick,” Sasuke said arrogantly, “You should just give up now, Dead Last, and spare yourself the pain.”

He settled into a taijutsu stance, torso twisted slightly to present a smaller profile, right hand drawn back, ready to strike or cast, left hand extended, ready to grapple.

Naruto gave Sasuke a skeptical look. He couldn’t help but compare the Sasuke in front of him to the one back home, and the Uchiha was coming up short in every way. Oh, sure, his stance and posture were solid… for a Year Four. But his footwork was appalling, more in line with a Year Two, feet firmly planted, legs straight… he stood there like a rock when he should have been ready to flow in any direction like water.

Taking Naruto’s silence as an invitation, or an insult, one never knew with an Uchiha, Sasuke opened with a mildly telegraphed straight jab, prompting Naruto to reflexively respond with a takedown combo that his Kakashi-nii had taught him earlier in the year, accompanied by the sound of the fabric over both of his armpits tearing away and exposing bare skin. Sasuke was caught completely off guard and within three seconds was face-down on the ground, Naruto kneeling on his back, and his right arm twisted behind him to the point that any attempt to free himself risked dislocating his shoulder.

There was silence for a long moment, all the fangirls and Mizuki frozen in expressions of shock at watching Sasuke effortlessly be taken down by Naruto.

“Naruto… you are disqualified,” Mizuki finally said.

“What? Why?” Naruto demanded hotly, twisting to look at the man.

“The exam is for academy taijutsu only. That was not academy taijutsu, therefore you are disqualified and automatically fail this section of the exam. Let Uchiha-san up. Now.”

Naruto let out a growl that seemed more animalistic than human, sending prickles of fear sparking down the spines of everyone who heard it, but obligingly rolled off Sasuke and stood, offering a hand to help Sasuke up, only for the Uchiha to ignore it with an extremely venomous glare, heave himself to his feet and stalk away in a rage, his fangirls following him.

Naruto proceeded to ignore the rest of the exam, leaning against the side of the academy building and quietly conversing with Kurama about how much the fox and Naruto’s clones had mapped out Konoha.

The answer surprisingly turned out to be most of it. All of the clan compounds had been located and preliminary scouting had been done of them by peering over the walls from atop neighboring buildings, the majority of shops had been located their products recorded (Naruto was delighted to know there was an Ichiraku’s in this Konoha), and they knew of several minor criminal enterprises in the civilian red light district – which was where Naruto’s apartment was, albeit on the outskirts closest to the shinobi districts – that they could “withdraw” money from should they need the cash.

 ** _I found it,_** Kurama abruptly announced.

_Tou-chan’s house?_

**_Yes. It’s surrounded by a wall and obscured with seals, give me a bit to decipher them._ **

Naruto was jolted back to the outside world when Iruka-sensei and Mizuki began to herd everyone back inside, apparently their papers had just finished being graded and now the senseis were going to announce who passed and in theory would go on to become a genin (Naruto remembered the bell test and other similar tests were used by jonin-senseis to determine who actually would become a genin). Once everyone had taken their seats the two adult shinobi began to read off who had passed and who had failed in alphabetical order.

“Uzumaki Naruto, fail,” Mizuki said once he reached Naruto's name.

Naruto scowled slightly. While he had had no chance at passing the written exam, not with so little time, he could have easily passed the ninjutsu portion if he had been allowed to use his shadow clones, and he had definitely passed the taijutsu part.

After everyone’s pass or fail was read out they were dismissed and the prospective shinobi rushed outside, Naruto silently following them. He paused at the entrance to the academy, looking at all the children excitedly reuniting with their parents and telling them about the exam.

It _hurt_.

The absence of his family was keenly felt. He could feel the happiness of the families in front of him, and the knowledge that he wouldn’t be able to see his own again for years at least made his heart clench, his lungs struggle to breath, and tears start to form at his eyes.

Then someone grabbed his shoulder from behind and he shrieked, shooting straight up in a chakra assisted leap that would have easily cleared ten feet had he not cracked his head on the door frame, accompanied by the sound of the seam over his ass tearing.

“That was the most impressive startle I’ve seen in a long time,” Naruto heard Mizuki say with smothered laughter from where he lay on the floor, clutching his head and moaning in pain, waiting for his vision to clear, “Especially as it was completely unintentional.”

Blinking his eyes clear of stars and tears – only some of which were caused by the impact – Naruto saw Mizuki squatting next to him and tensed.

“You know, there is a secret test that will allow you to be promoted to genin despite failing the academy exam,” Mizuki said conspiratorially.

“Sensei?” Naruto asked warily.

Mizuki glanced at the slowly dispersing crowd of adults and children.

“It’s a secret, so we can’t discuss it in the open, follow me.”

Mizuki straightened up and ducked back inside. Naruto stood and hesitated in the doorway, watching the sensei duck into a classroom.

_Does he think I’m that stupid?_

**_Maybe that desperate. If local Naruto thought becoming a shinobi was the key to escaping the abuse heaped on him by civilians…_ **

_That makes more sense than I like._

**_I think we should still hear him out._ **

_What? Why? You know that we can’t trust anything he says._

**_True, but even his lies can imply what he’s up to, and if local Naruto was as desperate to become a shinobi as I think, it would make him suspicious if “Naruto” just blew him off when he was offering him the chance to become a shinobi._ **

Naruto frowned, but started to walk to the classroom door.

_If we’re doing this to keep Mizuki from getting suspicious of us I’ll need to do some acting. What do you think I should be like, “Begging Kakashi to take me to Ichiraku’s” or “A prank just went horribly wrong but at least nobody got hurt”?_

Kurama snorted.

**_The latter._ **

Naruto rested his hand on the door handle to the room and took a deep breath, getting himself into the mindset required, Kurama coiling within him, just in case.

He opened the door.

“Took you awhile,” Mizuki commented, from where he was standing looking out the window, “I was starting to think you weren’t willing to do anything to become Hokage like you keep declaring.”

“Sorry, sensei,” Naruto said with the appropriate level of contriteness, “I thought you were playing a cruel joke on me for a second.”

“Do you seriously think I would do that to you, Naruto?” Mizuki asked, turning to face him.

“I know many who would in a heartbeat, despite that I have done nothing to them.”

There was a twitch in Mizuki’s face at that, but Naruto didn’t know what to make of it.

“That was a wonderful take-down of Uchiha-san earlier today, Naruto-san. A pity that I had to disqualify you for it due to politics. Where did you learn it?”

Naruto really didn’t want to answer that, thankfully he didn’t need to, Mizuki had been dodging what he had offered to Naruto long enough that had being a shinobi been actually something that Naruto wanted, he would have been getting quite impatient by now.

“What’s the secret test sensei? How can I be a genin?”

It took Mizuki a moment to switch gears. Naruto could see that Mizuki would dearly like to figure out where Naruto learned that combo, but not to the extent that it would jeopardize whatever plan he had.

“The test, yes. You are to retrieve the kinjutsu scroll from the Hokage’s mansion and bring it to me at the woods adjacent to the Forest of Death before the moon sets tonight.”

“The Hokage approved this?” Naruto asked.

The slight narrowing of Mizuki’s brow clued Naruto in to that he had said something that the local Naruto would never have, but he didn’t know what that was.

“Of course,” Mizuki said, sounding surprised that Naruto would question that, “If he hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been allowed to tell you where the village’s kinjutsu scroll is.”

Naruto paused for a moment, as though thinking things through, before cheerfully saying

“Okay, I’ll get the scroll and meet you there, datteboyo!”

He spun on his heel and pranced out of the classroom, dropping the act once he left the academy.

**_So Mizuki wants to use us as a patsy, scapegoat, or distraction. I'm not sure when the moon sets, but I think it's late tonight, or rather early tomorrow. I also passed through the location he's talking about, so I can guide you to it._ **

_I’m going to spawn a clone to let Iruka-sensei know what Mizuki’s up to. I also want to bring him in on what’s happened to us. Having an adult shinobi helping will be very useful._

**_I agree, and also want to bring him into our confidence, but we need to check where his loyalties lie first. If we tell Iruka something sensitive and potentially damaging to ourselves and he promptly goes running to Sarutobi, who in his usual fashion, if he’s anything like the counterpart we’re familiar with, will happily leave the information unsecured where it will be stolen and leaked all across the elemental nations, and that’s assuming he doesn’t leak it himself or try to use it against us._ **

Naruto scowled.

_I hate that you’re right._

A quick hand seal later and a clone split off to follow Iruka-sensei home and let him know about Mizuki’s impending mischief.

_Now lets get some clothes that actually fit me, I’m getting really tired of struggling to not tear this suit._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naruto isn't doing too well at keeping people from figuring out he's different, is he? Thankfully there's very few people who know him well enough to notice.
> 
> One of Minato's many reforms to the Academy got rid of the whole "Shinobi Rules" concept, as Minato knew from personal experience that those who followed said rules religiously had a much higher chance of failing missions, coming home with injured or dead teammates, or being injured or killed themselves compared to those that ignored the rules or treated them as guidelines only. Which is why the first rule that is drummed into everyone's heads the moment they enter the academy is: When the Kami decide to take a dump on you, There Are No Rules. The second is: If the situation is FUBAR, priority one is Get Your Team Home Alive. Also the Academy last for six years, I think that cannon?
> 
> My head cannon is that the academy bushin is generally treated as a stepping stone to learning the more advanced bushin forms, like how one is taught multiplication before exponents. The Academy bushin is simple, easily taught, and requires little chakra, but it's easily dispelled, can only do pre-programed actions (like move from point A to B, repeat a sentence, etc.) and cannot utilize the chakra it's made of like more advanced clones, namely Shadow and Elemental.
> 
> Kurama, as both a Bijuu and a fox, doesn't grasp the concept of personal modesty in relation to clothing, nor the societal subtexts of going without clothing in human form give. After all, no one bats an eye at seeing an animal running around with nothing but its fur on.
> 
> Konoha shinobi are actively encouraged to rob criminals if they need additional funding while in the field, or if they're bored. Much like the Chosen and Bijuu in that regard.
> 
> Mizuki is administering all of Naruto's exams because he convinced Iruka that, because of Iruka's known friendship with Naruto, if he passed Naruto people would assume that the only reason Naruto passed was because of said friendship, and thus Mizuki needed to be the one to test Naruto.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't split this chapter without interrupting the narrative flow I wanted, so it's double length.

The store Naruto had chosen to go to was fairly close to his apartment, which was necessary because he hadn’t been able to comfortably squeeze his wallet into the tracksuit, it was just too bulky and the suit to tight. He had also chosen the store because the clothing was cheaper than that sold by shinobi stores, though it was much less durable as a consequence. But considering Naruto was likely to outgrow any clothes he bought now within a few months anyway, the lack of durability wasn’t really a problem.

He made his way back to the apartment and to the store through back alleys, taking care to avoid other people as much as he could so he didn’t feel their hate for him as much, and while he wasn’t completely successful there weren’t any confrontations other than the odd glare sent his way from those who noticed him, which wasn’t many.

Naruto quietly slipped through the door of the clothes shop, unnoticed save for the older lady manning the counter next to the door who glared at him, full of hate and spite.

He ignored her and slipped between the racks of clothes, looking for his size in a style he liked. Half an hour later, he approached the counter, arms full of clothes.

“Three hundred fifty nine ryo,” the old woman spat.

Naruto’s jaw dropped.

“What? That’s several times the price-“

“There’s a tax for serving monsters like you,” she interrupted, sneering, “Now pay up and get out of my store.”

Naruto glared back at her and stormed out, leaving the clothes behind.

 _Rabid bitch,_ Naruto thought, and Kurama sent his agreement. Naruto took a deep breath through his nose and slipped back into the alleys, heading to his second destination, a small food store. Unfortunately he had to dart across a busy street to get to the door of the store, and judging by the brief flares of hate he was definitely seen entering. Ignoring everyone around him, Naruto grabbed a basket from the stack next to the door and made his way down an aisle, eyeing the selection of rice available. He was surveying the shelved of canned food, basket half full, with large windows behind him when a man shouted

“You!”

Attention drawn by the volume of the shout, Naruto glanced over to see a tall balding man storming towards him, apron wrapped around his waist, holding a wooden mop like a club, filled with rage, hate, and grief.

“I told you what would happen if you showed your face again, hellspawn!”

The man swung his improvised club in a two-handed overhead strike at Naruto that was easy for him to grab before it hit him, reinforcing his hand and arm with chakra to keep the impact from hurting his hand and to keep control over the mop, keeping the man from yanking it out of his grasp.

“I’ve done nothing to you,” Naruto said.

“My wife and daughter are dead because of you! You didn’t even leave me bodies to bury!”

The man grabbed a can from the shelf and threw it at Naruto, who dodged it by twisting to the side, resulting in the can smashing through the plate glass window, following up with a kick at Kurama’s Chosen, forcing Naruto to release the mop in order to jump out of range. Seeing the man coming at him and winding up for another hit with the mop, Naruto decided to exercise the discretion of a shinobi and leapt through the broken window, leaving the basket of food behind. Rolling to his feet, and ignoring the instantly healed cuts from the broken glass, he surveyed the crowd of civilians that had formed around the broken window warily.

“The Demon just tried to steal from me!” the man still inside the store bellowed, “Get him!”

And that was the spark that ignited the wildfire.

The horde of civilians surged towards Naruto, who leapt up and used the nearest man’s face as a springboard to launch himself onto the roof of the store, the sound of numerous seams tearing drowned out by the screams of the newly formed mob baying for Naruto’s blood.

Naruto ran, leaping from rooftop to rooftop to stay ahead of the mob, whose killing intent he could feel, and that was scaring him. These weren’t shinobi, who could use their ability and willingness to kill as a scare and intimidation tactic, when a civilian started to give off killing intent, there was no bluff for you to call, they were going to try and kill you if they could. In addition he could hear the mob calling for increasingly horrible fates for him.

“HANG HIM!” “CUT ITS THROAT!” “DROWN THE MONSTER!” “MAKE IT PAY!” “SKIN IT!” “GUT IT!” “BURN IT ALIVE!” "DEATH TO THE FOX!"

Naruto could feel panic growing at the edges of his mind – no allies, no safe place, no help coming, what to do, _what to do_ – when Kurama spoke up.

**_Left._ **

Naruto immediately turned left and began to leap across buildings in that direction.

**_Straight. Straight. Right. Straight. Left. Straight._ **

Kurama continued to guide Naruto through Konoha, first into the shinobi districts, which forced the mob to break off as they were intercepted by chuunin and jonin, and then into the woods on the outskirts of the hidden village.

Ducking around a massive tree Naruto saw Kurama standing in front of an overgrown stone wall with five meter tall wrought iron gates, the kitsune as tall as a horse and with all nine tails proudly waving behind him. It probably wasn’t a good idea for Kurama to display his true nature so openly, but at this moment Naruto didn’t care, sprinting into Kurama and burying his face into the fur of the fox’s shoulder, hugging as much of him as he could reach, now tattered clothes hanging off him. The tracksuit was still in one peace, but that was more through luck than anything else, with a thin strip of fabric along the top of Naruto’s shoulders being all that was connecting the sleeves to the collar, the tears under his arms having spread down to the waist seam and then torn along it to beet up with the tear along the butt seam, which had propagated up to the waist seam behind and up between Naruto’s legs to the groin seam in front, which held. The ankles had also ridden up to mid calf, the elastic bands inside having snapped.

“Hey, kit,” Kurama rumbled, lowering his head to rest on Naruto’s shoulder.

Intellectually, Naruto knew that Kurama had never left the seal, his true form still curled around Naruto’s soul, but seeing and interacting with him in the physical world was somehow more real to the twelve year old, and he had been dearly missing Kurama’s physical presence. He hugged the fox tighter.

“One last thing before we can rest for a bit, kit,” Kurama said.

“Kurama?”

“The manor is sealed with a blood lock,” Kurama nodded at the iron gates, which Naruto noticed had an intricate seal in place of a lock, “It needs a drop of your blood to open.”

“Then we can rest?” Naruto asked.

It had been almost eight hours since their reality’s Mizuki had woken them in the middle of the night, and they had gone to sleep late in the first place. Combined with first the exam and then being chased by a mob, never mind all the emotional stress, and Naruto could feel an eminent crash coming on.

“Yes, we can rest for a bit.”

Reluctantly letting go of Kurama, Naruto approached the seal on the gates.

“Anywhere on the seal?”

“Yes.”

Naruto drew a kunai, held the tip next to the pad of his left index finger, hesitated a moment, for he hadn’t yet mastered the instinct against self-harm, no matter that he knew that Kurama would instantly heal such a minor cut, before pricking his finger and letting blood well up. Once a sizable bead of blood formed he ran his fingertip down the center of the seal, leaving a bloody mark against the dirt encrusted metal. For a long moment nothing happened, then, with an anti-climactic clap-crack, a seam appeared between the two halves of the gate.

Reaching out Naruto pushed on the right gate. It didn’t move. He shoved his shoulder against it. The top swayed a bit, but it still didn’t budge.

“Let me.”

Naruto stepped aside to allow Kurama to try. The currently horse sized fox braced against both ground and gate and, with a grunt, heaved. With a squeal of rusted hinges the gate opened maybe half a foot.

Looking down Naruto realized the problem. It had been so long since the gate had last been opened that dirt had accumulated against the base of the gate and buried the bottom few inches.

Naruto started going through the hand seals for a simple earth jutsu, designed to level dirt, taught to everyone in the academy, or at least the version that Naruto went to, in order to get them familiar with earth jutsus as it was easy to learn. But the reason Naruto was casting it now was because the jutsu squeezed any “excess” dirt out the side of the affected area, which made the jutsu surprisingly good at building trenches and foxholes in a pinch.

Silently finishing the sequence, Naruto and all of his generation in his home reality had been trained to never announce what jutsu they were casting unless it was to alert an ally, the ground under the gates flattened, revealing the badly corroded bottoms of the gates as the dirt encasing them was shunted into two foot-high berms to either side of the entrance. This time when Kurama pushed on the gate it resisted only momentarily before opening with an earsplitting screech, and the pair laid their eyes on the Uzumaki-Namikaze Manor.

It was... a terrible sight.

A full third had been set on fire at some point, almost certainly arson judging by the visible burn pattern, all the windows and doors were broken and shattered, the grounds were overgrown to the point of being nearly impassable, and the paint and plaster were falling off the exterior of the building in large chunks, exposing rotting wood beneath.

Naruto and Kurama entered the ruin side by side, neither saying anything, a floating ball of foxfire providing illumination for the darkened interior. The entrance hall had been stripped bare before the manor was abandoned, save for the remains of what had once been a shoe rack that had been destroyed by something and was now serving as a pot for a large fern. Beyond was the main communal room, which took up most of the ground floor, also stripped save for some furniture that was too large to easily remove, a few couches that had decayed to the point they were sprouting greenery and a large dinning table that had once been made of a beautiful wood, now ruined by water damage and a decade of exposure to the elements. Two doors and a stairway formed exits to the room, one door leading to the burned section of the building and the other to a once well-furnished kitchen, also stripped of everything of value.

Naruto led the way up the creaking stairs. The second floor seemed to have been dedicated to bedrooms, though the rooms that had been spared by the long ago blaze – which sadly did not include the master bedroom Minato and Kushina had used – had been reduced to empty rooms with naught but empty bed frames to indicate what they once were.

There was one exception.

Naruto tried to slide the old broken door along its track, but when it refused to move he pulled it off its rails entirely, snapping the frame of the door in half, and rested it against the wall next to the doorway, revealing a nursery.

 _His_ nursery.

Or at least, that was what Minato and Kushina had intended it to be. The few scraps of wallpaper still on the walls had long since faded, early afternoon sunlight streaming in through the broken window, illuminating the crib that still stood in the center of the room, tattered remains of a mattress and stuffed animals inside it.

Spotting a picture frame lying face down on the dust and dirt covered floor between the crib and the faded yellow dresser flush with the wall behind it, Naruto stepped forward and knelt next to it, picking it up.

The wood felt rough, dirty, and like it could snap if he pressed to hard, there was a massive crack in the glass stemming from the upper right corner, and the picture showed Jiraiya, Minato, Kushina, Mikoto, and a one-eyed Kakashi smiling at the camera – presumably in Kakashi’s case, though he was doing his eye-smile thing – and Kushina was obviously well into the third trimester with Naruto. According to the date stenciled into the upper right corner, the picture had been taken a week before Naruto’s birth.

Naruto _broke_.

His breath started to rattle in his chest and his hands holding the picture began to shake.

Kurama was there in an instant, wrapping himself around Naruto, body and soul.

“ ** _I’m here, Naruto. It’s okay, let it out,”_** he said, both physically and spiritually.

Naruto threw his arms around Kurama, still holding the picture, buried his face in his fur, and _sobbed_.

Great wreaking sobs, tears and snot soaking into Kurama’s fur, filled with pain and grief, and the whole while the ancient being, long declared by humanity to be nothing but an engine of destruction and violence, incapable of any emotion that wasn’t hate or rage, wrapped Naruto’s soul in his love and continuously whispered

“ ** _I’m here, Naruto. I’m here, and I’m not leaving you.”_**

It was almost a mirror reversal of how Naruto had comforted Kurama after Kurama’s first Chosen, and Naruto’s namesake, had passed.

Naruto cried, and cried, until he eventually fell asleep from physical and emotional exhaustion, Kurama wrapped completely around him like a donut.

Naruto had barely passed into a deep sleep when the clone he had sent to Iruka dispelled itself. Given Naruto’s current incapacitation, Kurama decided to review the clone’s memories himself.

* * *

Iruka sighed as he flopped down onto his couch, resting his head against the back and closing his eyes. It had been a long day, between the exam and dropping off the results at the Hokage’s Tower, despite that it was only just past noon now.

He had such hopes that Naruto, despite all his difficulties learning, would manage to pass the exam, but apparently it was not to be, despite Naruto’s shocking display of competence in both ninjutsu and taijutsu, Iruka had seen that the only reason the bushin had failed was because he put too much power in. He had also found the rules Naruto had put down made more sense that the actual rules, but were still incorrect and between that and the complete failure on the history section Naruto had scored the lowest in the class on the written portion of the exam.

Of course, the moment he had gotten comfortable was the moment someone tapped on his window. Groaning he blindly reached over to grab the string resting on the armrest of the couch, with the other end tied to the window latch, and gave it a tug, unlatching the window to let Kakashi in.

“Close it behind you,” he said tiredly.

“Of course, sensei,” Naruto said.

….

Iruka bolted upright and looked at his window to see Naruto, in the too small clothes he had, for some reason, chosen to wear today, reengage the latch holding it shut behind him.

“Naruto?” he asked, extremely confused, “What-“ He broke off at seeing how serious Naruto was.

“Mizuki wants me to steal the kinjutsu scroll from the Sarutobi Mansion and bring it to him before moon set,” Naruto said without preamble, “He claims that if I do that I’ll be promoted straight to genin and that everything has already been authorized.”

“He’s lying,” Iruka said quickly, “Naruto, he’s lying to you. Don’t-“

“Relax, sensei,” Naruto soothed, “I already knew he was lying. I need your help though. Mizuki is almost certainly a traitor, but I don’t know if he’s trying to use me as a distraction or make me into an unwitting accomplice.”

Iruka leaned back with a gusty exhale, eyes slightly wide. After a long moment of thought he asked

“You sure that Mizuki isn’t just trying to get you in trouble?”

Naruto gave Iruka a flat look as he sat in a chair opposite him.

“Let’s say that I bought Mizuki’s lie and made an attempt on the scroll. What do you _think_ would happen? Because I would most definitely be brought to T&I at which point I would quite happily tell them that Mizuki set me up.”

Iruka winced. In that scenario, considering that T&I definitely had ways of knowing if someone believed they were telling the truth thanks to the Yamanaka’s mind jutsus, Mizuki would definitely be brought in and interrogated as to what the hell he was thinking. Naruto, as the village’s Jinchuuriki and unwitting accomplice, would probably by let off with a proverbial slap on the wrist given his close relationship with the Hokage. Mizuki, however, faced the end of his shinobi career, numerous sanctions, and massive fines _at best_ , and, sadly more likely, outright execution for treason at worst. And Mizuki was more than intelligent enough to realize that.

Put like that, it was fairly obvious that Iruka’s friend had indeed decided to turn traitor.

He firmly pushed that realization to the side for now, took a deep breath to settle himself into the mission mindset, and asked

“What do you need me to do?”

Naruto nodded.

“I take it my word isn’t enough to get someone investigated, much less with the urgency needed?”

“Correct.”

“Then we need to catch him red handed. If he trying to use me as a distraction and has no intention of showing up there's nothing we can do about it, so let's assume he's actually after the scroll. Can you make or get a fake kinjutsu scroll? We might be able to do without, but if he sees me without a scroll he might just run.”

Iruka thought for a minute.

“I… don’t think I can get a fake scroll. But we can use my family’s kinjutsu scroll instead.”

Naruto was shocked.

“Sensei… are you sure? That belongs to you family and clan, I can’t guarantee that it won’t be damaged or destroyed if we use it.”

Iruka gave him a sad smile.

“I’m the last Umino, Naruto. The scroll is mine to do with as I please. Besides, I already know everything it contains, little though that is. I’m sure.”

“…Okay. Thank you, sensei.”

“So what’s your plan once Mizuki shows up?”

“Make a big enough racket that jonin and ANBU show up, then convince them to take all three of us, you, me, and Mizuki, to T&I, where we explain that we think that Mizuki’s a traitor and why.”

Iruka frowned.

That… was certainly _a_ plan. Not a particularly good plan, but given the time constraints they were under, it wasn’t a particularly bad plan either.

“If we can get him to monologue we could also share our memory of that as well,” Naruto continued.

He had to be referring to Yamanaka mind jutsus and clearly didn’t realize what it meant or took for a shinobi to willingly bare their thoughts and secrets to someone like that, after all the number who would willingly share head space with the Kyuubi no Kitsune was very few, and of those none would do so without pressing need. Iruka certainly wasn’t going to volunteer to have someone rummage around in his head, no matter how loyal and/or trustworthy they were, but if the Hokage ordered him to do it he would.

“I dislike how we’re relying on Mizuki to show up… where exactly?”

“Forest next to the Forest of Death, and I don’t like it either, but if this is all a distraction to remove guards from something else or if he’s not even planning to show and is just skipping town there’s not much we can do about it. We just don’t have enough time.”

That was true.

A faint cacophony of yelling and shouting could be heard from outside, along with a sizeable number of people chanting indistinct death threats. Iruka groaned.

“I’m going to have to help with that, meet me at the western entrance of the Forest of Death at midnight, I’ll have my kinjutsu scroll ready for you. You should probably make yourself scarce for a bit until the mob disperses.”

Naruto nodded and made his way to the window.

“I’ll see you then, sensei,” he said, and left by the way he came in.

Iruka shut the window after him and then left by the door, heading towards the greatest source of noise. At least he knew that Naruto probably hadn’t been the source of this mob, he had been with Iruka the entire time.

* * *

The clone had waited until the mob had been dispersed, the leaders being taken into custody, before it dispelled itself. Kurama turned the plan the clone and Iruka had come up with over in his head. It was… a very Uzumaki plan. Find trap, spring trap, sow chaos and improvise from there. Admittedly they really didn’t have the time to come up with a better plan, and if things went FUBAR Kurama would just eat Mizuki and damn the consequences.

Of course, revealing anything about Kurama’s abilities was a last resort. The longer they could keep people believing that Kurama was confined within Naruto and inactive like most Jinchuuriki the longer he would be an extremely unexpected ace in the hole. He especially didn’t want to reveal that he could act completely independently of Naruto yet.

Kurama was under no illusions that he would be able to keep that he was aware, active, and independent secret for any length of time, but given his and Naruto’s complete lack of resources and allies every advantage was to be hoarded for as long as possible.

Speaking of advantages, he shifted his head slightly to look at Naruto, deep in an exhausted sleep, Kurama curled around him so tightly that the old fox could nose the base of his tails if he stretched a bit more, the boy practically vanishing beneath Kurama’s fluff and tails. Naruto desperately needed new clothes as his current outfit was only fit for use as scrap cloth in arts and crafts projects, and while Kurama retained his distain for clothes in relation to personal modesty – no one ever complained about him running around in nothing but his fur – he still had his pride and he wasn’t going to let his Chosen wander around in tattered rags if he could help it. And he could.

With a flex of will he began to form a second avatar. Technically, there was no limit on the number of avatars he could make, but in practice if he tried to split his attention between multiple avatars he inevitably focused on one to the exclusion of the rest or was so disorientated from the numerous inputs as to be useless. None of the other Bijuu had managed to pilot two avatars simultaneously with any amount of success either. Thankfully the avatar curled around Naruto just needed to exist and be warm and soft for his sleeping Chosen. 

The human-form avatar was of average height for a male human, with short brown hair, beard, and eyes, tanned skin, facial features that were a mix of Genma’s, Itachi’s, and Dan’s faces, and was as sexless as a mannequin, like all forms Kurama took. A quick henge garbed him in a kimono with a style and cut commonly found among decently successful civilian merchants, or at least like the ones back home.

Switching his attention to his new avatar a quick substitution jutsu swaped Naruto’s wallet with a piece of rubble – allowing Kurama to take the wallet without disturbing Naruto – and took it with him as he left the nursery.

A quick check through the rest of the manor didn't turn up anything useful, all the rooms had been stripped bare long ago save for furniture too large to easily remove and are now too decayed to be worth anything. Exploring the burned section revealed that the fire started at the high security vault in the basement, when someone triggered the vault’s self-destruct during their attempt to breach it, destroying everything inside. Judging by the fragments of charred-black bone in front of the vault the prospective thief or thieves hadn’t managed to shield themselves from the blast.

There was nothing else to be learned from the ruined manor, so Kurama made his way out, stumbling a few times before he readjusted to walking on two legs, circling around the shinobi districts. There wasn’t a lot of chakra in the avatar body he was using, so it was unlikely that anyone would sense him from any significant range unless they were specifically looking for him, but it was a construct formed entirely from his somewhat distinctive chakra. If he got to close – and “too close” varied from shinobi to shinobi, from touching to a few yards away – he would instantly be found out, which meant that he would have to do his shopping in the very civilian areas that had spawned a mob to kill Naruto. It was not ideal, not in the slightest, but considering they didn’t have the available funds to buy high quality shinobi equipment in the first place he’d have to make due.

It took at least half and hour for Kurama to make his way around to the civilian district. Glancing at his reflections in the glass of windows he walked past he slowly made himself look a bit worn and dirty, as though he had gone a few days without being able to change clothes. He had never been able to get the “unwashed human” odor correct, either too strong, too weak, or just wrong, but civilians wouldn’t notice it’s absence unless it was pointed out to them, and the few who did notice likely wouldn’t think much of it.

What cover should he use? New to Konoha, has to be, no one’s seen him before and he’s not familiar with the town’s layout. Granted Konoha was large enough that he could pose as someone who lived elsewhere in the hidden village, but if people started gossiping and no one realized they knew him that could cause difficulties going forwards if he or Naruto wanted to keep using this disguise. Plus he wouldn’t have an answer if someone asked where he lived.

Okay, so, new to Konoha… why? Trading? With what? Refugee? That’ll work. Home was destroyed by… bandits or shinobi? Bandits, if he says shinobi then that will get official interest from Konoha, but Konoha tends not to care about bandits unless they’re being paid to hunt them down – they tend to view that as a Daimyo problem, not a shinobi one, something Minato was working on fixing but with Sarutobi still in charge here Kurama doubted anyone in an official capacity would care. Home was destroyed by bandits and recently arrived in Konoha with his… Son? Or Nephew? Son.

Now a name. Kurama didn’t know if they were going to be using this identity multiple times or if it was going to be disposable, so should be a name he can remember.

...Dokite... Takao… yes that would work. The Dokite were a clan of civilian merchants that had lived in Uzushio before it’s destruction back home, at which point they had emigrated to Konoha with the Uzushio survivors. However, Saiken had informed Kurama that there were no survivors from Uzushio in this timeline, the few who had escaped the genocide having not been on the island when it was razed, so he doubted that anyone would recognize that clan name.

Kurama slipped in amongst the buildings without anyone noticing, calmly making his way to the nearest clothing store. As he walked he tried to gauge the mood of the civilians he passed. Annoyed and grumbling seemed to sum up the attitude of those he passed, and for the sake of his temper he didn’t listen too closely to what they were saying.

No one gave him a second glance at least, and he entered the clothing store – not the same one Naruto had went to – without anyone asking who he was or what he was doing. He had been browsing the racks for several minutes, looking for things in Naruto’s size and preferably in a style that he likes, when an employee approached him.

“Greetings customer-san, can I help you find anything?”

Kurama eyed the man for a second before, feeling no ill feelings from him, decided to accept the offer in order to get back to Naruto as fast as possible.

“Yes, actually. Can you help me find-” Kurama relayed Naruto’s sizes and preferred style.

The employee thought for a moment before nodding.

“Not sure about the style, customer-san, but boys’ clothing is this way.”

After browsing the racks for several minutes Kurama grabbed an orange on black long shirt and pants, for casual wear, along with a dark green on light green pair as a stopgap option for wearing on missions, as well as two pairs of underwear.

“That’s it?” the employee asked as Kurama made his way towards the counter.

“All I can afford right now,” Kurama answered truthfully, eliciting a discreet double look at the clothes Kurama appeared to be “wearing”. Which was a reminder that he and Naruto needed to start scouting out criminals to rob if they wanted to be able to buy any equipment actually worth anything.

“One hundred thirteen ryo,” the employee said.

As Kurama paid for the clothes he quietly asked

“I’m new to Konoha. Do you know of a store near here that sells food for a reasonable price?”

“Refugee?”

“Bandits,” Kurama said flatly.

The employee winced, and Kurama could feel his sympathy and had to force down his near instinctive response to being pitied. Something must have shown on his face because the human said nothing more about that.

“Yes, there’s a grocery store three blocks down that way,” he said instead, pointing.

“Thank you,” Kurama said curtly, grabbing the bag containing Naruto’s new clothes and striding to the door.

He will never understand humans. How they can commit horrible acts of cruelty one moment and then turn around and do an act of kindness the next without any cognitive dissonance, even when called on it they always have an excuse to disavow any moral responsibility for their immoral actions.

With a deep breath Kurama forced his train of thought onto more productive topics because infuriating himself over their hypocrisy was not helpful. Instead he started to guestimate whether he would be able to use the paper and ink in their apartment to make a storage seal able to take everything back to the manor where Naruto was, or would he have to leave things behind.

To those unfamiliar with fuuinjutsu the answer was an obvious yes, and technically they were correct, Kurama _could_ make a seal using the paper and ink in the apartment, but the catch was in the details. Different materials can channel chakra at different efficiencies and have differing limits on how much chakra can be channeled at once before the materials start to degrade, and the more chakra above the limit the faster the degradation. Most of the time this isn’t a problem, seals carved onto the ground or chunks of stone usually have such a high chakra limit that it can be disregarded for all but the most powerful seals. Paper, on the other hand, has a fairly low chakra limit, both due to its composition and extreme thinness, same with ink. This can be alleviated by using extremely high-quality paper – or better yet vellum – and inks that have powdered minerals and crystals that have a naturally high chakra conductivity alloyed in, like how various chakra metals are made, but chakra materials are extremely expensive and the paper and ink available in the apartment are of extremely low quality, which drastically limits what seals can be applied to them if Kurama wants to use the seal more than once.

The amount of chakra a storage seal uses depends on the volume currently within the seal, and power requirements increase with a – somewhat shallow – logarithmic curve. Problem was, Kurama thought as he browsed several shelves containing various breakfast bars – Naruto hadn’t had breakfast or lunch today and there was going to be a fight tonight, he needed to eat something dense and with a lot of calories, pity there were no MREs available in this store – unless he did a deep material analysis on both the paper and ink and sat down to calculate how much volume that granted for a storage seal – a process that usually took a few days and required equipment that Kurama didn’t have access to – he was reduced to guesstimating how much a storage seal could reliably hold without causing the paper it was drawn on to undergo a "spontaneous and highly energetic decomposition" (as Naruto Senior would sometimes call some of his more volatile fuuinjutsu failures after he burned off his eyebrows again). At least it only needed to work twice, and non-secure storage seals were designed so that if the seal failed it would vomit out it’s contents rather than destroy them.

Now he should finish his shopping, leave the stuff he’s not going to take to the manor back at the apartment, and get back to his Chosen before he wakes. He needs to prepare Naruto to face Mizuki again so that this fight doesn’t end like the last one. Also he had to make sure that none of his siblings, in this reality or his native one, ever found out he went shopping for his Chosen, because he'd never hear the end of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Both of the store owners that were mean to Naruto lost family in the Kyuubi attack. OTL!Naruto knew which stores to avoid and which wouldn't charge him over much, so he rarely had the problems Family!Naruto is having with the populace right now.
> 
> Naruto is referring to the Memory Transfer ninshuu jutsu, which has not been rediscovered in this timeline. Also the Umino scroll contains nothing particularly valuable, especially when compared to the major clans or the village's scroll. Strategically, even if Mizuki manages to get away with Iruka's kinjutsu scroll it will have no impact on the balance of power internationally.
> 
> Naruto tends to look at the infamous Skywalker-Kenobi disasters and go “Amateurs. I can create that much chaos all by myself and with half as much planning.” “What planning?” “Exactly.”


	4. Chapter 4

The sun was beginning to set when Naruto awoke. It was a gradual awakening, still feeling emotionally drained and fragile, but being surrounded on all sides by Kurama’s soft fuzzy bulk helped calm and comfort him.

“Hey, kit,” Kurama rumbled quietly, raising his head from under his tails to meet Naruto’s eyes, “I was going to wake you soon. You need to eat and get ready to meet Iruka in a few hours.”

Naruto paused in confusion for a moment before he recalled the clone’s memories from after he fell asleep.

“Ichiraku’s?” Naruto asked hopefully.

“We don’t have enough cash for that right now.” Seeing Naruto’s expression fall Kurama added “We’ll get some as soon as I make a withdrawal from the local criminals.”

Naruto smiled, gently running his hands through Kurama’s fur.

“Thank you, Kurama.”

They remained in their positions for a long moment before Naruto’s increasingly unignorable hunger forced him to ask

“So, food?”

“In a storage seal on the table downstairs,” Kurama answered, reluctantly uncurling himself from around Naruto to allow him to stand.

“You went out and got food?” Naruto asked as he stood, clutching the picture to his chest, “Were you able to control your temper and did anyone get suspicious?”

Given Kurama’s past, those were valid questions.

“Yes and no, respectively,” Kurama said as he stood and padded out the room behind Naruto, “The villagers were surprisingly kind and helpful when I was using a human disguise, I’ll fill you in on the ID I came up with later if you want.”

Coming down the stairs into the dinning room Naruto quickly made his way to the dinning table, which had been mostly swept clear of dirt and debris save for a small piece of paper with the seal on it, the paper around the ink discolored like it had been exposed to heat nearly hot enough to ignite it. Tapping it with his finger and a small spark of chakra to unseal it caused a set of green clothes and a small pile of rice bars in different flavors.

“Thank you, Kurama,” Naruto said gratefully, gladly stripping out of the ruined rags in favor of clothing that actually fit him, wolfing down large bites of rice bars whenever he had a free hand for a moment, “Did you get an orange set as well?’

“Yes. So what’s your plan for dealing with Mizuki when he gets violent? If things get out of hand I _will_ step in and kill him, but I want to hear your thoughts.”

As Naruto was currently stuffing his mouth full he answered mentally.

_Ideally I’ll let Iruka-sensei handle the bulk of the fighting, with me standing back and providing support with clones and the occasional jutsu. If Mizuki engages before Iruka gets there… use the Darken Light genjutsu to blind him while I shapeshift fox eyes so I can still see in the ultra-low light and take a kunai to his hamstrings._

Kurama nodded thoughtfully. Contrary to most genjutsus Darken Light was simple to cast, hard to dispel, and power-hungry to the point only an Uzumaki could cast it over a significant area. It was also unlikely that a chuunin had a counter to it, especially since the jutsu originated in Uzushio and was likely lost and long forgotten in this reality.

“I think that’ll work.”

* * *

Iruka waited at the closed gates to the Forest of Death, his kinjutsu scroll in hand, looking for Naruto. According to his watch it was just after midnight, and moonset was at three-thirty-one, and Naruto had yet to show. He quietly inhaled through his nose. It was just a few minutes past midnight, it was entirely possible Naruto had gotten turned around in the darkness and was just running late, there was no reason to suspect a more nefarious reason for his lateness yet.

A rustling of leaves caused Iruka to glance down and see a fox emerge from the foliage along the side of the trail leading to the gate, the darkness leaching all color from its light pelt, pausing to sniff the air. Iruka gave it a brief glare before scanning the opposite side of the trail. Yes, he had a problem with foxes, so did all of Konoha and with good reason.

“Hi sensei.”

Iruka jumped, and nearly fumbled the scroll, whipping around to glare at Naruto, who had appeared out of nowhere wearing dark clothes rather than his customary orange, barely noticing that the fox had vanished without him hearing it move through the undergrowth.

“Damnit, Naruto,” he hissed, “Don’t do that.”

“Sorry, sensei,” Naruto said unapologetically, before looking at the scroll Iruka was holding, “So how closely does that resemble the actual kinjutsu scroll?”

Iruka eyed it, thought for a moment, then cast a henge on it, making the end caps appear gilded.

“Rather closely,” he said, handing it to Naruto who grinned at him.

“So,” Naruto said, sobering, “Mizuki is probably expecting me to show up alone, so…”

Iruka nodded.

“I’ll start quartering the forest like I’m looking for you then.”

The two split up, Naruto heading deeper into the forest while Iruka started a spiral search pattern along the edge of the forest, pretending to look for Naruto but actually looking for Mizuki.

It was just after two forty-five in the morning, and Iruka was halfway through his search pattern when Mizuki stepped out of the undergrowth in front of him.

“Mizuki,” Iruka said, keeping himself from visibly tensing, “Are you looking for Naruto as well?”

“Yes,” Mizuki answered smoothly, “The Hokage sent me to relieve you.”

“That’s not what Hokage-sama told me,” Iruka lied as well, “I was told to not give up until I or someone else managed to catch Naruto. Hokage-sama was quite angry and embarrassed that Naruto managed to make off with the village’s kinjutsu scroll.”

That gave Mizuki pause, and Iruka could see him desperately trying to come up with something that would get Iruka to leave. What he would have come up with would be forever unknown, as that was the moment that Naruto leapt into small clearing.

“Mizuki-sensei!” the blonde boy shouted excitedly, waving the scroll around by its end cap, “I’ve got the scroll! Does that mean I’m a genin now?”

There was a brief flash of panic across Mizuki’s face and he froze, eyes darting between Iruka and Naruto.

“Mizuki,” Iruka said, as the other shinobi’s hand began to drift towards the giant shruiken on his back, “Don’t do anything stupid, I’m sure this has-“

Mizuki, in a single smooth movement, drew and threw his shruiken at Naruto, but Iruka was barely fast enough to get a shushin off, bodyslaming into Naruto to knock him out of the way, causing the shruiken to thud into Iruka’s right side rather than Naruto’s chest.

“Sensei!” Naruto cried as Iruka fell, a spike buried in his lung, another imbedded in his pelvis, and a third having barely missed piercing his skull due to him having leaned forward, carving a shallow grove across the back of his head.

Naruto caught him before he could hit the ground and carefully rested him against a tree.

“Damnit, sensei,” Naruto hissed, “Why’d you do that? I could take the hit.”

“Shouldn’t… have… to…”

“I heal, you don’t,” Naruto said quietly.

Mizuki let out a brief laugh filled with derision.

“If I’d known that it was this easy to get you out of the way, Iruka, I would have done it awhile ago. Now, Naruto, bring me the scroll.”

“No.”

Naruto reached for the ninja wire Iruka had wrapped around his waist and Iruka grabbed his hand, hoping to convince him to just give Mizuki the scroll and run, because there was no way Naruto was a match for a fully trained chuunin, only to completely loose his train of thought when he met Naruto’s eyes which had a slitted pupil.

Slitted like a fox’s.

Oh, no.

“Uzumaki, give me the scroll,” Mizuki demanded, before adding “I’ll tell you why the villagers hate you if you do.”

Iruka tried to take a breath to tell Naruto to not listen, but only managed to cough wetly, blood coming up into his mouth, as Naruto quickly undid the tie on the wire and began to wind it around his left forearm with smooth, practiced movements that were not taught at the Academy.

“And you expect me to believe that you’ll uphold your end if I do? I’m not that naïve,” Naruto responded, tightly controlled anger in his voice.

“Fine. It’s because _you_ are the _Kyuubi no Kitsune._ ”

Time seemed to freeze. Iruka swore he felt his heart stop as he looked at Naruto’s face, dreading what he would find. Only to see Naruto had his eyes closed and a look of constipated exasperation on his face, as though someone had just said something really, really, stupid.

“No, I am not.”

The calm response took both adults aback.

“You are,” Mizuki said as Naruto opened his eyes, slightly slitted pupils gleaming in the dark like a cat’s, “You are the Kyuubi re-“

“Kurama and I are completely separate people,” Naruto interrupted, running through a hand seal sequence that Iruka didn’t recognize.

The moment Naruto completed the jutsu darkness fell. Not like a smoke, blanket, or fog, but as though all sources of light had dimmed to near nonexistence. Iruka could just barely see the faintest outline of his chest, but nothing else.

“The fuck did you just do, Uzumaki?” Mizuki demanded.

The only sound in response was the faint rustle of movement on forest floor as Naruto left Iruka’s side.

“Fire Flare,” The traitorous shinobi muttered, causing a ball of fire to appear over his outstretched hand, but the ball glowed the dull red one got when one shown a flashlight through the webbing of their hand, rather than its normal bright orange, illuminating an unnaturally small amount of area – just Mizuki’s hand and wrist were visible.

Then Mizuki abruptly got his feet yanked from under him by something unseen, causing him to drop the jutsu and plunging the forest back into absolute darkness. There was the sound of a body hitting the ground and Mizuki grunted.

“Get-“ Mizuki started to say, only to be interrupted by, judging from the sound, a fist to the face.

Someone started struggling against the forest floor, accompanied by the indistinct noises of someone being imperfectly strangled. After several minutes the noises stopped and the darkness lifted, revealing Mizuki unconscious face-down on the ground, arms and legs bound in ninja wire, with Naruto on his back, both knees between Mizuki’s shoulder blades.

The moment was broken when Iruka tried to take a breath and his body tried to cough, the spasming of his ribs and diaphragm causing him blinding pain, resulting in him feeling more than seeing Naruto launch a ball of chakra skyward, screaming out a not insignificant amount of the Kyuubi’s chakra like a flare.

Blinking the tears out of his eyes he saw Naruto hovering worriedly in front of him.

“I’m sorry sensei,” Naruto said, “I don’t think I should try to get that out of you without a medic nin here.”

“You… think… right…” Iruka managed to get out, tilting his body to the right to try and keep his blood out of his left lung as long as possible.

Naruto sat down next to him and grabbed his right hand, nervously glancing between him and his former friend. Iruka noticed that Naruto’s eyes had returned to normal, and he desperately wanted to ask where Naruto had learned those jutsus, but each breath was precious right now and that could wait.

There was one thing that couldn’t however.

“You… called… it… Kurama…?”

Naruto jolted and glanced away, clearly uncomfortable.

“Yeah,” he said quietly, “That’s his name.”

Iruka would have paled if it wasn’t for the blood loss doing it for him. If Naruto was in contact with the Kyuubi, who knew what lies it was feeding him, what it was trying to twist him into. Worse it was clearly playing the long game, trying to be a false friend to Naruto so it could manipulate him.

“How… long…”

“Quite awhile now,” Naruto answered evasively and he knew from that tone that he was never going to get a straight answer on this question.

Fear clutched at his heart and Naruto flinched.

“Sensei,” Naruto pleaded, leaning forward and staring into Iruka’s eyes, tears threatening to fall from his own, “please, please don’t be afraid of me. I’m still _me_. I’m still _Naruto_.”

Iruka’s eyes widened. How did…

The moment was interrupted when a trio of ANBU dropped from the trees, their feet hitting the ground with intentional loudness, drawing Naruto’s attention.

“ANBU-sama,” Naruto cried with relief, “Mizuki turned traitor and tried to kill Iruka-sensei and me when we tried to stop him.”

The ANBU took in the scene in a second, Iruka with Mizuki’s distinctive giant shruiken imbedded in him, Mizkui bound and unconscious, and Naruto by Iruka’s side holding his hand, before two, Monkey and Dog, grabbed Mizuki and disappeared into the underbrush while the third, Raven, approached him, producing a large medkit from a sealing scroll on her waist, Naruto obligingly getting out of her way.

“I’m going to need to bind that for transport to the hospital, you’re going to need surgery,” she noted.

“How can I help?” Naruto asked.

Help was here. Naruto was safe, at least for the moment. Iruka felt himself start to relax and darkness began to close in on him, and this time it wasn’t a jutsu, but despite Raven’s and Naruto’s requests and pleas he wasn’t able to stop himself from sliding into unconsciousness.

* * *

Hiruzen made his way up the stairs to Naruto’s apartment, where he’d instructed ANBU to take Naruto after he had been woken up and made aware of the situation. Umino was still in surgery, and was expected to survive, but no one was making any promises that he would ever recover enough to return to full time duty and the latest prognosis he had heard just before he left the Tower made that look increasingly unlikely. Thankfully being a sensei didn’t require two fully functional lungs – usually, at least – and Umino seemed to like teaching, so it didn’t really affect Konoha’s battleline and mission roster much.

T&I was still interrogating Mizuki – Hiruzen wasn’t feeling merciful, not when the traitor had tried to kill Naruto, and had ordered Inochi to tear apart the man’s mind if he refused to cooperate – but several things had already come up that he needed to talk to Naruto about.

Reaching the door to Naruto’s apartment he knocked on it and a moment later Naruto opened it. Minato’s child had grown since he last saw him a few weeks ago, and the green clothes he was wearing were clearly new if currently dirty and bloodstained.

“Hokage-sama,” Naruto said formally with a shallow bow, “be welcome in my home.”

The formality hurt, to see always rambunctious and cheerful Naruto treating him like a stranger felt like a kunai to the heart. Damn Mizuki.

“Not going to call me Jiji today?” he asked sadly, following Naruto into the apartment and sliding the door shut behind him.

“Maybe when you’re not here in your official capacity,” Naruto answered.

“And how do you know that I just want to check on my unofficial nephew after such a traumatic event?”

“You’re the Hokage,” was the simple reply, “The village must come first.”

That took Hiruzen aback. He’d tried to explain that to Naruto before, but the child hadn’t seemed to grasp it before now. One of the few good things to have come from this fiasco it appeared.

“Yes. Something that you’ll learn more of if you take the Hat.”

Expecting an enthusiastic declaration about how Naruto would be the next Hokage Hiuzen was disorientated when it didn’t come.

“You do still want to be Hokage, don’t you?”

Naruto gave him a piercing look before drifting to gaze out the window.

“To be a kage,” Naruto said quietly, “One must be willing to sacrifice everything and everyone for the good of the village. Including family, both blood and made. I don’t think I can knowingly send my most precious people off to die, nor do I particularly want to be someone who can. People who can do that are needed, I _know_ they’re needed, and maybe it’s selfish of me but I don’t want to have to be one of them.”

The weight of the hat on his head felt like it was made of lead, and the faces of long dead friends and family swam behind his closed eyes.

He took a deep breath.

“Was it the Kyuubi who convinced you to give up your dream?”

Naruto’s gaze snapped to him.

“Iruka told you?”

“Mizuki. Naruto, the Kyuubi lies. You can’t trust-“

“Except he _doesn’t_ ,” Naruto interrupted, “Not when the truth is so much more terrible for the fact that it is the truth. A lie can be seen through, but the truth _is_. As to my dream, Kurama sees, hears, and feels everything that the person he is inside of experiences, and can share memories with me. I have seen the costs that Hashirama, Tobirama, and Tou-chan have paid as Hokage and what it did to them, and it’s not a price I want to pay.”

That was true, the truth was often as powerful a weapon as the greatest blade or strongest jutsu, but context is an equally powerful shield, and the Kyuubi had apparently revealed Naruto’s parentage to him but that was currently a minor issue.

“Just because it tells the truth doesn’t mean the Kyuubi isn’t trying to manipulate you. Look underneath the underneath, nothing that demon fox says is solely what it seems.”

“You should head your own advise when it comes to Kurama,” Naruto retorted, “On the day I was born you claim that he attacked Konoha out of revenge, but had he actually wanted to destroy Konoha there would have been nothing able to stop him.”

“You underestimate us,” Hiruzen said icily, narrowing his eyes at Naruto, not quite a glare.

“Bijuudama bombardment from kilometers way. Firestorm larger and more powerful than the strongest typhoon. Hell, he could have just cracked open the crust of the planet and dropped the whole village into the mouth of a new volcano. And that’s just what I can think off of the top of my head. Could you have stopped any of those?”

Hiruzen thought back to that horrible night, how nothing they did had been able to stop the Kyuubi before Minato sacrificed himself. He thought of legends of the Kyuubi, of how its wrath was said to be proceeded by storm and flame. He thought of the craters that ringed the outskirts of Konoha to this day, caused by Bijuudama they had barely deflected. Naruto wasn’t wrong. He wouldn't say he was right, but he wasn't wrong.

“Why?” he asked.

Why didn’t it do that. Why did it not flee if it wasn’t interested in fighting. Why did it not cause more damage?

“You didn’t fight Kurama,” Naruto said softly, “You fought a sharingan controlled puppet.”

Ice shot down his spine.

“All the Uchiha were accounted for during the attack.”

“Are you able to account for all of the sharrigan eyes belonging to the Uchiha who died outside Konoha?” Naruto asked.

No. But

"Only one person has ever been able to control the Bijuu in such a manner, and he would have died from age before you were born.”

“Did you find Madara’s grave, and were his eyes buried with him? Sharingan no Kakashi is proof that the sharingan can be implanted into non-Uchiha.”

Hiruzen leaned back against the wall next to the door and ran his hand down his face.

Fuck. That made too much sense. He’d have to task Jiraya and Danzo to look into it.

At least it wasn’t one of the other major villages behind the attack. They would have attacked immediately afterwards if they were. But…

“Why did the Kyuubi tell you this?”

Naruto sat on the edge of his futon and met his eyes.

“The Bijuu were created to make sure an omnicidal god stays dead. Someone is trying to resurrect it. All nine Bijuu need to sacrificed for that to succeed, and two already have been, Kokuo and Son Goku, the Gobi and the Yonbi.”

Hiruzen balked. That couldn’t be true. It just…

“Tell Jiraya to ask Gamamaru-sama about the Juubi, and what became of it,” Naruto said, “He’s one of the very few to have faced it and survived, the rest died at the Mountain’s Graveyard. Or you could ask your own summons, though I don’t think they know nearly as much.”

Hiruzen took a deep breath and wrestled control over his emotions.

“I think I need to take my leave, Naruto,” He said after a long moment, “I have much work to do.”

“I’ll be here, Hokage-sama,” Naruto replied as Hiruzen opened the door and stepped out into the hall, “Well, until I get bored most likely.”

Hiruzen nodded distractedly at that, closing the door behind him, turning to see ANBU Cat in the hall, eyes more than a little wide behind his mask and clearly had heard everything.

“Keep an eye on him,” Hiruzen whispered.

Cat saluted and turned himself invisible, save for a slight shimmering outline, and Hiruzen made his way back to the Tower.

Sitting back down in his chair he stared at his parchment covered desk for several long minutes before he summoned Enma.

“Hiruzen,” Enma greeted, “You seem troubled.”

“Enma,” Hiruzen took a deep breath before continuing, “What happens if the Juubi is resurrected?”

Enma went ridged.

“The world dies, and all of us with it. Hiruzen,” Enma’s voice became urgent, “ _is someone trying to resurrect the Juubi?”_

After a long, long moment Hiruzen whispered “Yes.”

There was a flash of abject terror across Enma’s face before he unsummoned himself.

Another minute passed before Hiruzen grabbed a blank paper and began to compose a letter to Jiraya, Mizuki’s treachery now firmly a secondary concern.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Darken Light works be negating a percentage of visible light wavelength photons that enters the affected area by red-shifting them out of the visible spectrum, with the percentage being decided by the caster. The higher the percentage, the greater the power draw.
> 
> Should we pity Hiruzen? He's just realized that he's standing on a very large bomb and the ticking noise he's hearing isn't from a clock.


	5. Chapter 5

Kakashi walked up the stairs to Naruto’s apartment, Naruto’s new hitae-ate lazily spinning around his right forefinger. Ostensibly he was delivering said hitae-ate after the Hokage “forgot” to give it to Naruto earlier today as a reward for helping capture a traitor last night /really early this morning, but Kakashi saw it for what it was – an attempt to get him to socialize with Naruto before he was assigned as the kid’s jonin-sensei. 

Which was why he had waited until Naruto had left the apartment to approach it and leave the hitae-ate and a note to attend the assigning ceremony tomorrow at the academy, where the prospective genin would be assigned their jonin-senseis. 

Effortlessly picking the lock on Naruto’s door, which was there more to keep the casually curious out than actual security, as anyone with even moderately high civilian strength would be able to simply go through the door itself, he casually entered the apartment and looked around for the best place to leave his cargo. Noticing a picture frame lying face down on the desk he idly flipped it up. 

He was not prepared for the gut punch that stared back at him. 

Kakashi stared at the last photograph of his self-made family, taken mere days before it was torn apart forever, for a long minute before he carefully returned it to its face-down position and folded up the hitae-ate and missive and placed them on the back of the picture frame. 

The last time he had seen that picture had been on a wall in Sensei’s manor, and while he didn’t begrudge Naruto having the photo, if anyone deserved it it was Naruto, he was very curious as to how his Sensei’s son had acquired the picture, which meant he had a manor to inspect. 

* * *

Kakashi strode towards the Hokage’s office, hearing the murmur of voices from within, turning over the information he had to report in his head, when one of the ANBU currently guarding the Hokage’s office intercepted him. 

“The Hokage is currently in a critical meeting with his senior commanders and advisors, Taichou,” ANBU Turtle said, “Interruptions will only be tolerated if it’s an emergency.” 

Kakashi paused, tilted his head slightly, and asked 

“Does discovering that the seals protecting the Yondaime’s manor have fallen and that someone breached the Yondaime’s vault several years ago count?” He asked. 

Turtle paused, glanced at the other ANBU guarding the door, who shrugged, and said 

“I’ll check.” 

He turned around and knocked on the door, silencing everyone inside. 

“Enter,” The Hokage called. 

Turtle opened the door and slipped into the room, exiting a few seconds later. 

“The Hokage will see you now,” He told Kakashi. 

“Thank you,” Kakashi said, stepping past the guards into the room, who closed the door behind him. 

“Jonin Kakashi, report,” Sarutobi commanded where he sat at the head of a large table, around which sat Shikaku, Inochi, Danzo, Ibiki, and, surprisingly, Enma. 

Kakashi adopted parade rest while he detailed what he had found, starting with finding the photo in Naruto’s apartment to discovering that the boundary seals on the manor had been broken, to the current state of the manor and what little he was able to derive from the destroyed vault. 

“There is one thing that has me confused however,” He said, “While Naruto was the one to break the barrier seals, his scent is on the trail of child sized footprints leading into the manor, he was accompanied by something that was roughly the size and weight of a horse with canine like paws and no scent. Also, a set of adult footprints exit the house and then return later, again with no scent. The tracks start in the nursery and end at the dining table.” 

“The fox, do you think?” Inochi asked after a moment of silence. 

“What else could it be?” Ibiki responded, and Kakashi stiffened as he realized they were talking about the Kyuubi, “Though I am confused as to why it didn’t show up in the Mizuki Incident.” 

“That’s obvious,” Shikaku said, “It didn’t want us to realize it can interact outside of the seal yet. Regarding the adult tracks… my first thought is clone. Can the Kyuubi create clones?” 

That last bit was directed at Enma. 

“Kyuubi-sama is almost two millennia old,” the monkey king answered, “I wouldn’t bet against it.” 

There was an uncomfortable silence as everyone simultaneously realized just how long the Kyuubi had had to learn chakra techniques. 

“At least none of the Bijuu are known for their knowledge of sealing techniques,” Danzo said. 

“That might not be true any longer,” Shikaku replied, “If it didn’t lie to Naruto then it saw everything Uzumakis Mito and Kushina did, and the former was one of the best fuuinjutsu masters of her time and the latter was married to one. Which is almost certainly how the Kyuubi has managed to partially break Naruto’s seal. While I doubt that the Fox was paying attention to everything they did, we have to assume that every secret and technique they knew are compromised.” 

This was way above Kakashi’s pay grade. Given that they were discussing the Kyuubi, which was apparently escaping its seal, part of him wanted to know more but the rest of him really, really didn’t. 

“Should I leave?” Kakashi asked. 

“No,” The Hokage said, “As you’re going to be Naruto’s sensei you need to know this. That said, Shikaku, I want a jonin team guarding Minato’s manor full time until I can get Jiraya back here to reseal it, or teach Naruto how to. Ibiki, I want you to re-task an investigative team from Mizuki to investigate the manor.” 

“Age will have wiped away most of the evidence,” Ibiki warned, making a note in his journal, “Don’t expect them to find much, Hokage-sama.” 

“I know. Inochi, I want you to gently interrogate Umino Iruka as soon as he’s healthy enough for it. Both about when Naruto started to display personality changes, as that’s likely when the Kyuubi became active, and the Mizuki situation.” 

Inochi nodded, also making a note to himself. Sarutobi turned back to Kakashi. 

“Here’s what you need to know. There is an unknown group sacrificing the Bijuu to resurrect a monster known as the Juubi and they have already sacrificed two of the Bijuu. If they succeed, the world dies. As Naruto is the Kyuubi’s Jinchuuriki, he is one of their targets. As you heard, the Kyuubi is also slipping its seal, and is manipulating Naruto.” 

“Both the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki and the last Uchiha require training,” Danzo said with a sharp look at Kakashi with his remaining eye, “you are not allowed to fail them and send them back to the academy, are we clear?” 

“Ma, ma,” Kakashi bleated irreverently at Danzo before addressing the actual leader of Konoha, no matter how much Danzo might wish otherwise, “I’m still allowed to threaten to do that to them, right?” 

Sarutobi smirked and nodded. 

“If it helps,”Shikaku interjected, “Think of this as a bodyguard mission with a side of instructing your charges how to defend themselves.” 

Kakashi tilted his head and nodded. 

“The rest of this meeting won’t require your input, Hatake-san,” The Hokage said, “Dismissed.” 

Kakashi stood and bowed to him, Ibiki, Inochi, and Shikaku before opening and jumping out the window, Sarutobi’s sigh of exasperation following him out. 

Rolling to his feet he leapt onto the roof of the nearest building and beelined towards Naruto’s apartment, deciding to invite himself onto Naruto's protection detail for the rest of the day. Tenzo wouldn’t mind. Much. 

* * *

Naruto slipped into the auditorium in the academy, reflexively glancing around for fangirls that had no interest in him in this reality, one of the few positives about his situation, new Konoha hitae-ate tied to his forehead where he had once carried Kurama’s hitae-ate. 

_We really should have expected them to keep a close_ _eye on us,_ Naruto thought to Kurama. 

Kurama grunted, grumpy that he hadn’t been able to manifest since the fight with Mizuki due to the guard detail on Naruto. Both of them had been surprised to come back to the apartment from spending a few hours by Iruka-sensei’s bedside in the hospital – it had taken a fair while to find his room as none of the nurses had been willing to help him, and his now former sensei hadn’t woken up before Naruto had gotten hungry enough to go find food, passing Inochi on the way out, who had given Naruto a long look without saying anything – to find that Kakashi, judging from the scent, had left behind the hitae-ate and a note that Naruto had been accepted into Konoha’s shinobi corps, but in hindsight they really shouldn’t have been. Given that jinchuuriki were considered strategic assets it was obvious that someone would be assigned to both train him and keep a close eye on him, especially given that Naruto had accidentally revealed that Kurama was apparently much more active than his local counterpart. At least they were being tactful about it. 

Unfortunately they couldn’t identify their guards by emotional signature like they could back home, at least not without meeting the guards face-to-face to match names to signatures, but judging by the chakra Kurama could feel at least one of their guards were a survivor of Danzo’s experiments with mokuton. 

Spotting an open seat next to Shikamaru, who was dozing in the corner of the rearmost row he made himself as quiet and unnoticeable as possible, despite intellectually knowing that there was no chance of fangirls jumping him here habits are hard to break, and his way to the open seat and sat in it. Shikamaru lazily opened an eye to see who sat next to him, then opened both and sat up straight, eyeing Naruto with naked curiosity. 

“I thought you failed the exam,” Shikamaru said quietly, “I take it that your promotion is related to my Tou-san pulling an all nighter?” 

“Mizuki turned traitor and tried to kill Iruka-sensei,” Naruto replied quietly, aware that everyone with even midling intellect would be able to put that together, “I wasn’t about to let him get away with that and helped capture him. If your tou-san is pulling all nighters then there must have been far more than Mizuki involved.” 

Shikamaru nodded, frowning. 

“Is Iruka-sensei okay?” 

“He was in the recovery ward of the hospital last I saw him, and I don’t think he has any follow-up surgeries scheduled either, so he will be.” 

Shikamaru let out a near silent sigh of relief. The pair watched the rest of their classmates until the ceremony began. One by one, each team was announced and the new jonin-senseis would lead their new genin from the room. 

“Team Seven consists of Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto,” one of the academy’s senseis announced, causing many to twist in their seats to find him, apparently unaware that he was even in the room, “Your sensei is Hatake Kakashi.” The sensei glanced over the other jonin onstage and scowled, “Who is apparently late. Again.” 

There was an outbreak of muttering that was silenced when the next team was announced. Naruto groaned in frustration and leaned back to give an aggrieved look towards one of his guards who, through his empathy, he could sense hiding in the rafters. 

Only to blink in surprise when he realized that he was staring at Kakashi, who promptly put a finger in front of his face in the universal _shhh_ gesture. Snapping his gaze down he looked at Sasuke and Sakura, who were glaring at him. Was this some kind of perception test? Or was it seeing if he would alert his team? ...He’d wait a bit, see if they noticed, before he’d start getting more and more blatant about Kakashi’s presence. 

Frowning he memorized this Kakashi’s emotional signature, one of _depression_ _-apathy- self-guilt._

_He’s suffered a horrible fate here, hasn’t he?_

**_Rin, Obito, Minato, and_ ** **_Kushina_ ** **_are all listed on the memorial stone._ ** **_If his father met the same fate as in our reality as well..._**

 _...He broke, didn’t he?_

**_I think so, yes._ **

Naruto’s heart clenched in sympathy for his honorary brother and followed his nonverbal request, making no indication that he had noticed him as the final teams were announced. Eventually the only people in the room were himself, his teammates, and, unknown to the latter two, their sensei. 

“So, Dead Last,” Sasuke snapped, “You failed the exam. Why are you here? _How_ are you here? Because there is no way you got this on your own merits.” 

**_Tell them the truth, but make it sound as unbelievable as possible,_ ** Kurama interjected eagerly. 

Naruto smirked. 

“I singlehandedly took down a chuunin who crippled Iruka-sensei and wanted to use me to steal the village's kinjutsu scroll because I’m the son of the Yondaime and have the Kyuubi no Kitsune sealed in my soul and thus am one of the most strategically valuable people on the entire continent.” 

Sakura threw an eraser at him, which he easily caught. 

“If you’re going to lie, at least make it believable,” She sneered, disgusted. 

Naruto grinned at the shocked amusement he could feel from Kakashi and lobbed the eraser into the air such that the peak of its ark would be right next to Kakashi. Neither Sasuke nor Sakura noticed that the eraser didn’t come back down. 

“Whatever, baka, just stay out of my way and don’t slow me down.” 

“Which one of us was face first into the dirt in three seconds flat, again?” Naruto asked sweetly, showing a bit too much teeth for his expression to be called a smile. 

Sasuke glared but said nothing and firmly turned his back on Naruto, and the eraser promptly _thunked_ into the back of his head. The Uchiha spun around with murder in his eyes and Naruto braced to receive an angry barely-trained genin - 

“Who are you, and why are you in the rafters?” Sakura asked, perplexed. 

Sasuke looked up, distracted, and Kakashi dropped, lightly landing on a desk near Naruto. 

“Hatake Kakashi,” he introduced himself, “your new jonin-sensei. Now meet me on the roof.” 

He then dropped a smoke bomb and shushined out the door, and the only reason Naruto knew that was because he could track him via empathy, which was how he also knew that Kakashi had left a shadow clone in the hallway. 

“Did he just vanish?” Sakura asked in suprise as the smoke cleared. 

Naruto ignored her and left the room, heading for the stairs, the rest of his team following him after a moment. The clone wasn’t visible, through Naruto could see the faint outline of distortion where it was and a pair of black points where its eyes were (the jutsu didn’t care that Kakashi only had one eye). The invisibility jutsu had its advantages, but the user had to stay as still as possible. The slightest movement, and that included anything greater than a shallow breath, caused blurring of the outline, and the greater the movement the greater the distortion. It also did absolutely nothing to prevent detection by other methods – like scent, chakra detection, hearing, and most doujutsus – and chakra use would break the jutsu. 

Reaching the roof Team Seven sat in front of Kakashi-sensei, who ordered them to share their names, likes, and dreams, and then promptly only did one of the three, the one which they already knew. He didn’t even have the decency to come up with a believable excuse, he straight up told them that he wasn’t going to share. 

Sakura proclaimed her “love” of Sasuke and how her dream was to marry him. Naruto barely refrained from rolling his eyes while Sasuke didn’t even try, blatantly showing his distain and Naruto couldn’t blame him. Fangirls were some of the most annoying and infuriating things in existence, a thought that caused Kurama to chuckle in the back of his head. 

Sasuke stated his love of training and that his dream was to kill his brother. 

“Wait, what?” Naruto asked, shocked “You want to kill your _family_? Why?” 

The last Uchiha glared at him. 

“He killed our parents and all of my clan. One day, I will have my vengeance, and you won’t stop me.” 

Naruto barely refrained from blurting out _Itachi_ _wouldn’t do that_ , remembering at the last second that he didn’t know Itachi here. 

**_This isn’t our home reality, kit,_ ** Kurama reminded him, **_Itachi_ ** **_could be one of the differences. There is a reason he has all but left his clan back home, and without Minato here to give him an out he might very well have snapped._ **

_True, but he would have just killed those he viewed as responsible and left, not the whole clan save for his brother. There has to be more to this, there’s no way this is the full story._

Kurama sent a feeling of agreement and Naruto realized that everyone was waiting on him. 

“Uzumaki Naruto,” He announced, “As for the rest, I’m afraid it’s classified.” 

His genin teammates glared at him Kakashi-sensei gave a huff of amusement. 

“Technically, you’re not wrong,” the jonin admitted, “But now that we all know each other it’s time for your actual final exam. Meet me in the Forest Eighteen training ground tomorrow morning by seven, and don’t bother eating breakfast, you’ll likely just throw it back up. Lunch will be provided.” 

Kakashi exploded into smoke once more, but Naruto could feel that he hadn’t left his spot, instead turning invisible. Sasuke didn’t notice, admittedly Naruto would have been very surprised if he had, and strode off, Sakura loyally following behind him like a hound after its master. Naruto, however, casually walked next to Kakashi, seemingly looking out over Konoha in deep thought, but actually tracking the rest of his team. Once the two reached the next floor he, without any warning, launched himself at Kakashi and enveloped him in a surprise hug. (He knew how to get the drop on his honorary brother, though it didn’t always work) 

Kakashi froze in shock. 

“Naruto?” he whispered. 

“Not all your family’s dead, Kakashi-nii,” Naruto whispered back, “I don’t blame you.” 

Knowing that Kakashi would need time to process the vortex of emotions that Naruto had just inflicted on him the child released him and walked towards the stairs to head back to the apartment for some lunch, planning on visiting Iruka again afterwards. 

_If Kakashi is to be our sensei, he needs to know at least some of what you can do._

**_True, but only the bare minimum, and nothing to Sakura or Sasuke. I don’t trust the former to keep her mouth shut and the latter is dangerously emotionally unstable._ **

Naruto frowned. 

_You think Sasuke is going to snap?_

**_I think that he is consumed by the concept of vengeance to the point that if he ever thinks that Konoha is holding him back or preventing him from having his “vengeance” he will leave. That makes him extremely easy to manipulate and his loyalty fickle._ **

_Anything we can do to help that?_

**_Given the level of hate he already has for us? It would take extremely exceptional circumstances. Not something that we can rely on._ **

Naruto grimaced, then focused on dodging the villagers as he felt the now sadly familiar hate directed at him. 

* * *

Kakashi stood in front of the Memorial stone in the pre-dawn light, eyeing the names of his fallen family. 

_Not all of your family is dead, Kakashi-nii._

Reaching out he ran his finger across Sensei’s name. 

_What must you think of me, Sensei,_ he thought. 

“The pain never really fades, but you do learn to live with it.” 

Kakashi stiffened, he had been alone, who had managed to sneak up on him? Looking behind him he froze at the sight of a spectral crimson-orange horse-sized fox approaching him from the edge of the clearing. He swallowed, mouth suddenly dry. 

“All mortals head to the Pure Lands eventually,” the Kyuubi said, stepping next to him and eyeing the stone with bloody eyes, “You will see them again.” 

Given that the Kyuubi wasn’t going on a rampage he decided to be polite. And hey, he might even learn something about its goals. 

“Kyuubi-san.” 

The Kyuubi sighed. 

“I have a _name_ you know.” 

As no one had told Kakashi what that name was, he instead decided to change the subject. 

“Why are you here?” 

“Naruto argued, correctly, that as his sensei you need to be aware of some things regarding us. Obviously one of them is that I can manifest outside the seal, and if things go bad on a mission I will intervene. Another is that, thanks to me being sealed within him, Naruto now has complete access to my emphatic sensing. We can feel the hate the village has for Naruto, and it will, and is, wearing on him. Something that both of us need to keep an eye one.” 

“Why do you care?” 

It was only after he said it that Kakashi realized that it had come out far more aggressively and demanding than he had intended. Thankfully, the Kyuubi didn’t seem to take offense. 

“Naruto is a good person, a truly good person. You know how rare those are. I have no wish to see his optimism snuffed out by humanity’s petty cruelty.” 

Kakashi didn’t believe that. The Kyuubi _may_ have spoken the truth – Kakashi wasn’t holding his breath on that – but that definitely wasn’t the whole truth. The giant spectral fox sighed. 

“There is nothing I can say to change your opinion on me, is there?” Despite being phrased as a question it was clearly a resigned statement. “Then trust that, no matter how grudgingly, we are allies against whomever seeks to resurrect the Juubi. Ask Hiruzen about that if you do not know of what I speak, this is something that you need to know. That said, I would like you to keep this conversation between us.” 

“Why?” Kakashi asked suspiciously. 

“Haruno is not able to keep a secret like this, she’ll panic and eventually break and tell someone she shouldn’t, most likely her parents, and there’s no way to know if _they_ will keep quiet. Fixable, with time and training, but a bad idea currently.” 

Kakashi hesitantly nodded at that assessment, and the Kyuubi continued. 

“Uchiha, however, is completely consumed by his quest for vengeance, and that makes him easily manipulatable and his loyalties suspect. You need to get on that immediately because if nothing changes he will defect the moment someone offers him power, and he won’t look or care for the hidden costs as long as he is promised to be brought closer to his goal.” 

The Kyuubi met Kakashi’s eye and his tone took on an amount of urgency 

“As it is Uchiha Sasuke’s emotional mixture is far too close to Madara’s and others who sought to use me and my siblings as weapons, and Uchiha’s near certainty of developing the sharingan makes him a _threat_. Anything you tell or teach him will end up in an enemy’s hands sooner or later.” 

Kakashi thought over Sasuke’s behavior to come up with something to prove the Kyuubi wrong, but the more he thought about it the more he came to agree with the Demon Fox. _Shit_. He had been worried about Naruto’s stability, what with the Kyuubi whispering in his ear, especially given how reasonable it was being for now, but apparently Sasuke was a more immediate timebomb that he had to defuse. Unfortunately he was without a doubt the worst possible person for that job given how bad he was at emotions. 

“Regarding the upper levels of Konoha’s leadership, you’d know better than I who can keep their mouths shut, but I’m growing wary of Sarutobi Hiruzen. He is not what he used to be and I fear that his mind and judgment are becoming suspect.” 

And _there_ was the manipulation to sow discord. Kakashi knew it was coming. 

The Kyuubi looked back at the Memorial Stone for a long moment. 

“You need to attend to your team, Kakashi. The dead can, and happily will, wait for you, but they will not forgive you if you abandon the living for them.” 

The fox faded into nothing with a faint burst of Bijuu chakra, leaving no evidence of his presence save for the pawprints on the ground. Kakashi stared sightlessly at the Stone for another minute before sighing and turning away. Reluctant as he was to acknowledge it, the Kyuubi had several good points, and he had a report to write and a team to test, the latter of which would allow him to see if the Kyuubi’s observations held up in reality or if it was just an attempt to isolate Naruto from his peers. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi likes to live dangerously. Also Hiruzen actually did forget to bring Naruto his hitae-ate. Before Kakashi interrupted the meeting they had been discussing/interrogating Enma about the history of the Bijuu. Unfortunately the Monkey Summons know very little about the Bijuu's early history, much to everyone's frustrations.
> 
> Also, I should point out that neither Naruto nor Kurama have any idea that Danzo is alive right now, as he had been dead for well over a decade back home. 
> 
> Poor Kakashi was not prepared for Naruto to give him emotional poisoning. 
> 
> Kurama wasn’t actually trying to manipulate Kakashi, in fact he was being completely honest the whole time. 
> 
> Also, holy crap this story is already almost half the length of my other stories and we're not even half done!


	6. Chapter 6

Naruto glared up at the sky from where he lay on his back on the edge of a grassy clearing in the training field, Sakura having given up on getting Sasuke to talk to her an hour ago. Kurama’s own talk with Kakashi-sensei had ended two hours ago, which meant that Kakashi-sensei was over three hours late. Part of why he was so annoyed was that he was struggling not to drift off into a doze due to the warm sun and the large breakfast he had eaten, along with Sasuke’s perpetually simmering anger wearing at his own temper. 

Finally he felt Kakashi-sensei emerge from the background noise of Konoha, heading towards him. 

“About time,” he said, sitting up and catching his teammates’ attention. 

“What are you babbling about now?” Sasuke demanded irritably. 

“Sensei’s on his way,” Naruto answered, placing the trunk of a large tree between himself and the path that Kakashi-sensei was taking. He waited until Kakashi-sensei was almost on top of them before jumping out and bellowing 

“YOU’RE LATE!” 

Both Sasuke and Sakura startled, the latter letting out a small shriek, but Kakashi was completely unruffled. 

“Ma, Ma,” the sensei said placatingly, “I’m afraid that I had a run-in with a talking fox that made me do some deep thinking.” 

Naruto could feel the disbelief rolling off his teammates and was himself impressed by how Kakashi-sensei managed to make the truth sound like a lie. 

“So what’s this test you have for us?” Naruto asked, subsiding. 

_Want to bet it’s the bell test?_

**_No bet._ **

Sure enough, Kakashi-sensei brought out a pair of small bells, of the type one would find on the collar of a cat, and twirled them around a finger. 

“The test,” he announced, “is that each of you need to retrieve one of these bells from me before lunch. If you don’t have a bell by then you’ll be sent back to the academy.” 

_Called it,_ Naruto thought. 

“There’s only two bells, Sensei,” Sakura pointed out. 

Kakashi-sensei nodded cheerfully. 

“Yep, which means that one of you is going to be sent back regardless. Oh, and the test starts now.” 

Kakashi-sensei dropped a smoke bomb and shushined away. 

“Guys, this is a team test,” Naruto said quickly, “We pass or we fail as a team. The two bells-“ 

“Shut up, Dead Last,” Sasuke snapped, “You just don’t want to go back to the academy. Stay out of my way, I’m not going to let you drag me down with you.” 

Sasuke strode off with Sakura tagging along behind him as always, spouting some nonsense about how Sasuke would always have her that both boys ignored. 

“Damnit, Sasuke,” Naruto cried, jogging to catch up, “Hatake Kakashi was considered one of Konoha’s best jonin years before we were even born! There’s no way we can get the bells off him on our own, we have to work together!” 

“Sasuke-kun said to get lost,” Sakura yelled, launching a telegraphed punch at Naruto that he easily dodged with a light jump backwards, “So get lost!” 

**_You tried, Naruto,_ ** Kurama said, **_but now you have to let them make their own mistakes. You cannot force them to accept your help._ **

Naruto sagged slightly as he watched his supposed teammates disappear into the forest of the training ground. Closing his eyes he checked that Kakashi-sensei wasn’t anywhere nearby and shapeshifted into a small dusky orange and white fox and slipped through the undergrowth after Sasuke and Sakura, if he was quick and quiet he’d be able to get to a good spot to see Kakashi-sensei demonstrate why he was their sensei. 

It didn’t take long. Kakashi-sensei had clearly noticed Naruto hidden in a bush from where he was lounging against the base of a tree, Itcha-Itcha in front of his face, but had dismissed Naruto as a normal fox after discreetly casting a dispelling jutsu that would have broken any henge. The silence was broken when Sasuke charged in, screaming a war cry and winding up for a haymaker while Sakura cheered him on from the treeline. 

Kakashi-sensei didn’t even look up from his porn, much less stand. Instead he lifted his leg at the last second, causing Sasuke to gut-check himself on the jonin’s foot. As the Uchiha staggered back, clutching his gut and wheezing, Kakashi-sensei slapped the ground with the hand not holding his book and Sasuke dropped into a pit of aerated quicksand, which solidified a moment later, trapping him in the ground up to his shoulders. 

“Sasuke-kun!” Sakura cried, and charged across the clearing, but barely made it halfway before stepping into a lasso trap that, with a jerk of Kakashi-sensei’s free arm, sent her swinging into the air by an ankle, suspended from a thick tree branch. 

To her credit, she instantly bent up and began to try and untie herself, prompting Kakashi-sensei to let out an aggrieved sigh and get up, producing a length of ninja wire, and tie up Sakura with calm practiced motions, ignoring her protests and attempts to stop him, before strolling out of the clearing. 

“That didn’t go well,” Sakura noted morosely once their sensei had gone. 

“Perhaps,” Sasuke said icily, “If you had helped me rather than just standing there, I would have gotten the bells.” 

Naruto slipped away as Sakura began to fervently apologize to Sasuke, who passive-aggressively ignored her, instincts that Dan-sensei and Iruka-sensei had drilled into him screaming that Naruto’s teammates were bait to trap him. 

_“_ _If your teammates are captured, and there’s no one around, it’s_ _a trap.”_ Dan-sensei had said repeatedly during mock missions.

 _I guess it’s up to me now,_ Naruto thought. 

After several minutes thinking up and discarding plans, he had an idea. 

_Kurama_ _, I’ve got_ _something that I think will work, but I’ll need your help to make sure the clone looks right._

**_Oh?_ **

* * *

Kakashi lounged against the base of another tree, lazily turning pages of his first edition copy of Itcha-Itcha, staring at the pages yet not seeing them. Thanks to a sensory enhancement jutsu he had heard Naruto try to get his teammates to work with him, which was why he had taken down Sasuke and Sakura and left them for Naruto to free, to hopefully drive home that, yes, they did need to work together if they wanted to succeed. Whether or not they’d actually _learn_ that was another matter, though he had hopes for Sakura. Sasuke… not so much. Though he was starting to wonder where Naruto was, as he hadn’t seen or heard him since the test began. 

“I’m disappointed in you, Kakashi.” 

Kakashi snapped around to see Minato-sensei staring at him in profound disappointment. 

“S-Sensei?” 

“Why did you let Naruto grow up alone and hated? There are no pictures of you on the walls of Naruto’s apartment. Why is that, Kakashi?” 

Kakashi stared. Minato-sensei stood in front of him looking exactly as he had when he had been alive and his voice was the exact same as well. Even his expression of profound disappointment was to the same Minato-sensei wore when Kakashi screwed up spectacularly, he never got angry with Kakashi, just disappointed and sad. 

Kakashi practically tore his headband off in his haste to open Obito’s eye because _he had to know._

A clone. 

A modified shadow clone made from Naruto’s chakra. 

Kakashi... couldn’t put a word to what he was feeling, so he pushed his emotions to the side and launched a shruiken to pop the clone. 

There was a brilliant flash of light and a thunderous explosion that nearly ruptured his eardrums and he reflexively leapt away from where the clone had been, flash-blinded and deafened. He was frantically blinking his eyes and trying to get his ears to stop ringing when he felt the intentionally weak string holding the bells to his belt break from a violent tug and slashed his arm down at an angle that should have hit Naruto’s wrist or forearm, but caught nothing but air. 

Kakashi was going to have _words_ with that brat. 

* * *

Naruto, still in his fox form, ran full tilt through the underbrush, bells jingling in his mouth. If his ears hadn’t been pressed flat against his head Kakashi-sensei's swipe would have caught them. As it was barely a centimeter of air had separated Kakashi’s hand from the top of Naruto’s head. Nearing the clearing where the rest of his team was still trapped he flicked the bells up into the air and shifted back to human form, snatching the bells from the air as he burst into the clearing, drawing Sakura and Sasuke’s attention. 

Feeling Kakashi-sensei rapidly closing the distance he flicked one of the bells into Sasuke’s mouth, pressed one into Sakura’s hand – who caught on and grabbed it – turned around and Kakashi-sensei's hand closed on the front of his shirt, hauling Naruto up so that he was eyes to eye and sharingan with a rather pissed off Kakashi. 

“I don’t have any bells, Sensei,” Naruto quickly said. 

Kakashi-sensei looked at Sakura, who jingled hers, and a Sasuke, who spat his out and demanded 

“How do you have a sharingan?” 

“It was a gift,” Kakashi-sensei said in an icy tone that managed to shut Sasuke up for now, turning a baleful gaze on Naruto, who smiled nervously. 

_This may not have been our smartest plan._

Kurama, wisely, stayed silent. 

* * *

Kakashi tied Naruto to a pole upside-down and told Sasuke and Sakura not to share any of their bentos with him and that they would be told if they passed the test after lunch. Unfortunately, it was at this point that Sasuke decided to push the issue about him having Obito’s eye. 

“The sharingan belongs solely to the Uchiha clan. How do you have one?” the last “loyal” Uchiha demanded imperiously. 

“As I said, it was a gift, and that’s all you need to know,” Kakashi answered firmly. 

“That’s Obito’s eye, isn’t it?” Naruto asked quietly. 

Kakashi startled, then nodded. 

“Who is this Obito and how did he have a sharingan?” 

“Uchiha Obito,” Naruto answered, “He was one of Kakashi-sensei's genin teammates. Given that his name is on the Memorial Stone he must have been killed on a mission.” 

“Giving me his eye was his final act,” Kakashi said sadly. 

Turning to step away, and give Naruto a chance to persuade Sakura to share some of her bento with him – he already knew that Sasuke never would – Naruto apologetically said 

“Sensei, I’m sorry that I reminded you about Tou-chan's death.” 

Kakashi sighed. 

“It’s fine Naruto.” 

“It’s not fine, Sensei,” Naruto calmly replied, “I know what he meant to you and that was cruel of me. I’m sorry.” 

Kakashi frowned slightly and looked at Naruto. 

“How do you know what he meant to me?” 

“You have the Mangekyo. That tells me all I need to know.” 

The jonin blinked. Naruto thought that he had unlocked the Mangekyo when Sensei died rather than – _his hand smashing through her sternum, tearing apart her heart before continuing out the other side –_ than Rin’s death? Come to think of it how did Naruto know so much about the sharingan anyways? 

“HE WHAT?” Sasuke yelled. 

“Ma, ma, there’s no need to shout,” Kakashi placated. 

“How’d you do it?” Sasuke demanded “How’d you unlock the Mangekyo? Tell me!” 

Kakashi frowned at Sasuke and opened his mouth to chastise him, but Naruto beat him to it. 

“He watched one of the people he loved completely and absolutely die in front of him,” Naruto snapped, “Show some respect and empathy.” 

“And what would _you_ know about _my clan’s_ doujutsu,” Sasuke retorted angrily, “You’re a clanless orphan who doesn’t even know who his parents are!” 

Kakashi reflected that either Sasuke had missed Naruto referring to his father earlier or he was using an insult that he knew would sting. Sure enough Naruto’s eyes almost seemed to flash with anger and despite that his face didn’t change the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki looked a bit less human, a bit more bestial, and Kakashi could feel his considerable chakra starting to press on the air. He tensed in preparation to get Sasuke and Sakura away if the Kyuubi egged Naruto into doing something... _rash_. 

“I asked an ancient fox who was once an associate of Otsutuski Indra, the first sharingan wielder and your direct ancestor, before he slew his own father out of jealousy,” Naruto said, anger and chakra lacing his voice, “And who has followed the evolution of your line from Otsutsuki to Uchiha. He probably knows more about the sharingan that you do.” 

Kakashi swallowed, eye widening as he watched the trainwreck unfolding in front of him, unable to decide if he should intervene or wait and see what else Naruto would reveal. If the Indra he spoke of was the same Indra who was one of the sons of the Rikudo Sennin... 

“How do I meet this fox?” Sasuke asked eagerly. 

“Why do you think he would want to meet with someone who aspires to be a kinslayer?” 

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. 

“And if I were to... force the issue?” 

Naruto stared defiantly back. 

“You’d die. If not by the fox’s guardian, then by the fox himself.” 

Hang on, if the fox is the Kyuubi, then that would make Naruto.... Wait, did he? 

Holy shit, he did. 

“That’s enough,” Kakashi said sharply, because if _Naruto_ was riled up enough to make veiled _death threats_ to his teammate on behalf of the Kyuubi things had gotten _way_ out of hand, “Both of you, drop the subject, _now.”_

Both boys reluctantly subsided, Sakura looking a bit shell shocked. 

Fucking hell. This team. 

What did he do... actually he knew exactly what he did to deserve this. Naruto-as-Minato had correctly called him out on what he had done, and that was ignoring his work in ANBU and ROOT. Sighing he leapt into the tree canopy, close enough to observe in case he needed to intervene again yet far enough, and concealed enough, for Sakura to possibly return Naruto’s cooperation without him appearing to observe her. 

Sasuke and Naruto aggressively ignored each other as the Uchiha quickly finished his betno and sat glaring at the trees, refusing to even look at his teammates. Sakura kept glancing between the two boys nervously as she slowly ate her food, Naruto trying every trick in the book to get her to share. Eventually she did cave and shared the last of her food with him, mainly to get him to shut up. 

Kakashi waited for several minutes before jumping back into the clearing and announcing 

“I’ve decided. You all... pass.” 

“Really?” Sakura asked while Sasuke simultaneously said “Don’t you mean the baka is going back to the academy?” 

“As Naruto stated at the start, this was a team exam,” Kakashi explained, prompting Naruto to send an “I-told-you-so" face at his teammates, “and while Naruto did all the work in the first half had Sakura not shared some of her food with him just now you all would have failed.” 

“Thank you, Sakura,” Naruto said sincerely while Sasuke looked constipated. 

Clapping his hands Kakashi eye-smiled at them 

“So that’s all for today. Meet me here tomorrow at the same time for the actual start of your training.” 

“Will you actually be here on time?” Sasuke asked. 

“Possibly.” 

Given that he apparently had to keep Sasuke from getting himself killed by Naruto or the Kyuubi he’d have to be. A pair of shadow clones poofed into existence next to Naruto, causing Kakashi to blink in surprise as he hadn’t seen Naruto use any hand seals, leverage the pole out of the ground and start walking off, with Naruto still tied to the pole and now swinging around under it like a deer carcass over a cooking fire. 

“See you tomorrow, sensei!” Naruto called while Kakashi just shook his head in exasperation. 

* * *

Kakashi stood in the Hokage’s office with the other new jonin-senseis as they announced whether or not their teams had passed, trying to figure out a discreet way to request a private meeting with the Hokage, when he felt a piece of paper be slipped into his pocket. Glancing out the side of his eye he saw one of the ANBU guards slipping further down the wall, looking for all the world like he was just adjusting his position in the room. 

Pulling out the paper scrap and flipping it open he glanced down to read, in Shikaku’s handwriting, 

_Nara manor, Saturday, 20:00._ _Re: blonde_ _foxes_

Slipping the paper back into his pocket Kakashi relaxed slightly, he could wait two days. 

“Team Seven?” 

“Pass,” Kakashi announced, to general astonishment. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be clear, Kakashi wasn't using Naruto's teammates as bait for a trap, Naruto was just being paranoid. That said, had Kakashi actually been an enemy there definitely would have been a fairly lethal trap.
> 
> Had Naruto pulled the clone trick on his Kakashi, he would have gotten an unimpressed “ha. Ha.” and promptly been pranked in return. He forgot that this Kakashi has a bit more trauma. 
> 
> Yeah, Sasuke managed to bait Naruto into revealing quite a bit more information than was wise. 
> 
> Naruto is a bit protective of Kurama, who is and always will be Naruto’s first priority, like all Chosen, and Sasuke just managed to brand himself as a threat in Naruto’s eyes 
> 
> And yes, Kakashi has noticed that Naruto knows things that he should have no way of knowing, which means that Kurama told him. And what /Kurama/ knows is a question that's slowly eating away at him.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed the meeting from Friday to Saturday because I realized I had a timeline issue. The meeting still takes place two days later.

Kakashi watched as Naruto trotted up to him and the rest of Team Seven, early yet still the last to arrive, likely due to that he lived the farthest from the training ground of all of them. 

“Hi Sensei, hi Sakura,” Naruto greeted, ignoring Sasuke, “Look who I found.” 

He picked up a red fox, a surprisingly large if normal seeming one that Kakahsi wouldn’t have looked twice at had it definitely not existed a second ago, by the armpits and held it up to his team. 

“This is Kurama,” Naruto introduced cheerfully, “And he talks too!” 

“Bark. Bark. Woof,” Kurama stated flatly, looking as unimpressed with the world as Pakkun. 

“So, Sensei,” Naruto said, dropping Kurama and expertly sidestepping the fox’s attempt to bite his ankles without even looking, “What are we doing today?” 

“What _is_ Kurama?” Sakura asked, Sasuke looking at the fox with a calculating gaze. 

“I told you, he’s a fox.” 

“Foxes can’t talk.” 

“He’s a fox who can use chakra,” Naruto amended, as Kakashi flashed his sharingan, confirming his suspicions that Kurama was indeed the Kyuubi no Kitsune, “Just like Sensei’s pack are a bunch of dogs who can use chakra.” 

Sasuke and Sakura turned to look at Kakashi, who decided that this was a ruse he wanted to keep going as long as possible. 

“I suppose I can intro you to some of them today,” he said amicably, pricking his thumb on a kunai and summoning Shiba and Pakkun. 

“So you’re the Boss’ new pups,” Pakkun said after everyone had been introduced. 

“Pups?” Sasuke asked, scandalized, but Kakashi just nodded. 

“Indeed they are. Now,” he addressed his genin, “My pack speaks with my authority. If one of them tells you to do something, you do it.” Then he hastily added, seeing Shiba’s tail start to wag “Unless it’s treats or belly rubs, you need to check with me first on those.” 

Both Shiba and Pakkun drooped at that. 

“So what do you want us to do, Boss?” Shiba asked. 

“Take the ‘Pups’ for a jog around the outside of the training ground, Shiba,” Kakashi ordered, to groans from the genin, “Ten laps.” 

Shiba started wagging his tail. 

“You got it Boss.” 

As Shiba herded Kakashi’s students away the jonin quietly murmured to Pakkun 

“I want you to keep a close eye on the fox and alert me if it does anything suspicious.” 

“You sure you don’t want me to just run it off?” Pakkun asked. 

“He’d eat you,” Kakashi replied just as Kurama looked at them and bared his fangs in a feral parody of a smile, eyes flashing crimson and tail splitting into nine before abruptly looking like a normal fox again. 

“Right,” Pakkun said faintly, “Run howling to you if there’s a problem.” 

“That’s the spirit,” Kakashi said cheerfully, walking towards the Kyuubi no Kitsune, Pakkun trailing nervously behind him. 

Kakashi couldn’t blame Pakkun for his nervousness, they were intentionally approaching a being legendary for destroying cities, and infamous for its quick and foul temper to boot. 

“What do you want to talk about, Hatake?” The fox asked. 

“Firstly, is Kurama your actual name?” 

That got a mildly annoyed look from the fox. 

“It is the name my Tou-san gave me when he created me.” 

Kakashi paused, tilted his head, and remarked “Created. Interesting word choice.” 

“Accurate word choice.” Kurama stopped, thought for a moment, then mused “We Bijuu are in an interesting position regarding that. As we were created the argument can be made that we are artificial beings, yet our very existence is woven into the fabric of the world to the point that we are more natural than many humans.” 

“Let’s leave the philosophy for the philosophers. What are you doing here?” 

“What, did you think that I would just lay around within Naruto seal all day?” Kurama demanded, “Doesn’t that sound boring to you?” 

Admittedly Kakashi hadn’t given that any thought but that wasn’t what he meant either. 

“As in here rather than tormenting the town with pranks and jutsus.” 

“ _That_ would just make Naruto’s life harder, but I get what you mean. Mainly it’s just to introduce myself, but I also want to ask how you intend to train Team Seven.” 

Kakashi thought about that for a minute, as he didn’t have a training plan at this point. 

“I think that I’ll have them do physical conditioning for a good week or two before I start them on chakra control.” 

“Mmm, yeah that’s not going to work,” Kurama said, “For two reasons. First is that the Uchiha will throw a fit if you wait that long to train them in chakra. Naruto won’t be able to keep himself from displaying how advanced he is with chakra for that long and that will further Uchiha’s jealousy. Second is that due to me healing any damage Naruto takes he can train much harder and longer than normal humans, and is still able to improve after others would be forced to stop lest they harm themselves. That can be countered by keeping his physical training to reasonable limits, but if you plan on having them do physical conditioning all day Naruto _will_ out strip his teammates, if he doesn’t already.” 

“That doesn’t sound like a bad thing,” Kakashi remarked. 

“Until you realize that I can only subsidize the energy cost of healing all the micro damage Naruto’s muscles take, not the material cost. He needs to be on a high protein diet to avoid things like scurvy, as malnutrition is one of the few things I cannot heal, and our budget cannot afford that, plus shinobi equipment, plus replacement clothes. Really, we can only afford one of the three, if we want to get anything of decent quality.” 

“You have a plan I take it?” Kakashi would be shocked if the fox didn’t. 

Kurama gave him a long look. 

“How much plausible deniability do you want?” 

Ho, boy. 

“Hypothetically.” 

Kurama smirked. 

“Hypothetically, if Naruto and I are unable to secure more resources legally, Konoha’s more… less than legal enterprises might find themselves coming up short on cash, and some of their more violent and nastier members will permanently disappear. This is all hypothetical, of course.” 

“Of course,” Kakashi chorused, thinking quickly. 

Thankfully he had a meeting with Shikaku, and likely the Hokage, tomorrow night, because if it ever got out that the Kyuubi was preying on civilians, no matter who or why, there’d be an uprising, and not just among the civilians. 

“Then again,” Kurama said thoughtfully, looking at Pakkun, “What’s the hunting around Konoha like?” 

“Small game, mostly,” Pakkun answered, “You’ll have to travel a day or two out before you’ll see larger animals, like deer.” 

The jonin caught the fox’s train of thought. 

“You’re thinking about a hunting expedition,” he said. 

“Disguised as training in living off the land and preparing food in the wilderness,” Kurama confirmed, “If they can sneak up on an animal, they can sneak up on a human, and if they can kill an animal silently, they can kill a human.” 

“It may take a few days,” Kakashi said. 

Unspoken was the question if Kurama was willing to wait that long. 

“We still have about a week of food,” the fox answered, “Provided Naruto doesn’t have to burn excessive calories, at least.” 

“What qualifies as excessive?” 

“Physical training all day, or practicing high power jutsus.” 

“What about half day?” 

“Half day is fine. Chakra control exercises for the rest I take it?” 

Kakashi nodded, rapidly reorganizing his training schedule in his mind. 

“I’ll get them started on Tree Walking after lunch then.” 

Kurama blinked then shot him a surprised look. 

“The academy doesn’t teach something that basic?” 

* * *

When Kakashi-sensei called for them to break for lunch Naruto was the only genin on his team that didn’t collapse onto the grass from exhaustion, though he was breathing heavily. 

“How… are you… still standing?” Sakura panted. 

“By observing the oldest and most sacred of shinobi traditions,” Naruto wheezed. 

Upon seeing the curious gazes directed at him by everyone except Kurama, he added 

“I cheat.” 

Kakashi-sensei, Pakkun, and Shiba started laughing while Sakura and Sasuke gave him foul looks. 

“How, exactly, did you cheat?” Sasuke demanded. 

“By exercising more than you, obviously,” Naruto answered, neglecting to mention his regeneration. 

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, but before he could say anything Kakashi-sensei announced 

“You only get half an hour to eat. If you’re not done by then my pack gets the rest.” 

That, and the hopeful looks from Pakkun and Shiba, prompted Sasuke and Sakura to grab their lunch boxes while Naruto pulled out a scrap of paper with a storage seal inked on it, unsealing a large bowl filled with cheezy rice mixed with chopped ham and sausage. 

“You know fuuinjutsu?” Kakashi-sensei asked, surprised. 

“Yep,” Naruto said happily before he realized that the puff of smoke wasn’t going away and groaned upon seeing the seal was reducing itself to glowing cinders. 

“I was hoping to get at least another use out of that,” he complained. 

“Must have been a shitty seal then,” Sasuke sniped, holding an average sized bowl of rice and an apple. 

“Shitty materials more like,” Naruto grumbled, pulling out chopsticks, “Wish I could afford some chakra paper, or even just vellum.” 

“That’s a lot of food,” Sakura remarked, looking between Naruto’s mountain and her own small bowl of rice. 

“Not really,” Naruto answered between bites. 

“Not really? If I ate that much I’d get fat.” 

Kakashi-sensei looked between their meals but Naruto spoke before he could say anything 

“You want a bit of fat on you, actually. You never know when you might have to go a few days without eating and you don’t want to burn muscle. Besides, most of this,” he gestured to his food “is for building muscle.” 

“Naruto’s correct,” Kakashi-sensei said, unsealing his own large bowl of rice, “You both need to eat more. Did Kurama tell you that?” he asked Naruto. 

“Gai-san, actually,” Naruto answered, neglecting to mention that it had been during a guest lecture at his academy, “He’s loud.” Which was also true yet misleading. 

“Got caught in one of his ‘youthfulness’ rants did you?” Kakashi-sensei asked sympathetically. 

“The Flames of Youth burn brightest when kindled with proper nourishment,” Naruto quoted in a passable imitation of Gai. 

Kakashi-sensei shuddered and focused on his food. Team Seven ate their food without further conversation, though there was a bit of drama when Shiba tried to sneak up on Kakashi-sensei’s sharingan side, loudly sniffing hopefully, and got a grain of rice shot down a nostril, which was impressive considering Kakashi-sensei hadn’t even looked at Shiba. 

“He warned you,” Pakkun had told the sneezing dog, “I heard him warn you.” 

As they finished their food Kakashi-sensei asked 

“How much fuuinjutsu do you know, Naruto?” 

“Not a lot, though I do know a few Uzushio seals that could be useful.” 

“Really,” Kakashi said slowly, giving Naruto a long look that slid over to Kurama, who was lounging on a tree limb, and got a smug look in return. 

After a long moment where man and fox-shaped avatar of destruction and chaos stared at each other, Kakashi-sensei broke it and noticed that everyone had finished eating. 

“Put your bowls away, we’re going to be doing chakra training for the rest of today.” 

The genin hurried to obey and eagerly followed Kakashi-sensei to a strand of large trees next to a good sized pond. 

“So what are we going to be doing Sensei?” Naruto asked. 

“Tree Walking,” he said, walking up the side of a tree and standing on a primary branch. 

Reinforcing his legs with chakra Naruto leapt up, inverted himself midair, and stuck his feet to a higher branch than Kakashi-sensei was on, so that they were roughly eye level despite Naruto being upside down. 

“What’s the catch?” he asked his Sensei, ignoring the shock from Sakura and jealousy from Sasuke. 

“Allow me to rephrase,” Kakashi-sensei said dryly, “Saskue and Sakura will be doing Tree Walking. You will be doing Water Walking.” 

Naruto launched himself off the tree, flipped himself upright, and landed on the surface of the pond. 

“What el-ACK!” 

With a _ba-whosh_ Naruto was abruptly launched skyward by a column of water, spun uncontrollably, and bellyflopped into three inches of water. 

He resurfaced, spat out a mouthful of muddy water, and yelled

"KURAMA!" 

His soul-bound kin-in-all-but-name let out a vulpine cackle as he stepped onto the sloshing pond’s surface, easily adjusting for the waves he had created. 

“An enemy won't let you have a smooth surface to stand on kit. You need to learn how to adjust dynamically with unexpected wave motions. Kakashi,” Kurama looked at the jonin, “you can focus on the Uchiha and Sakura, I’ll keep Naruto occupied.” 

“Very well,” Kakashi-sensei said mildly, turning back to the other genin. 

Naruto stared at Kurama, mentally reaching across their bond to try and predict what he was going to do, only for the Bijuu to gently but firmly push his mind back into his own body. 

**_No cheating,_ ** the fox admonished. 

Naruto retaliated by trying to splash Kurama, only to instantly regret it when the fox yanked the water from under his feet, causing Naruto to windmill in a vain attempt to keep his balance, and was drenched by a giant wave. 

* * *

Hiruzen was sitting on a chair on his Jonin Commander’s back porch, having a quiet smoke while staring up at the night sky, pleasingly clear for a midspring Saturday night, waiting for Kakashi to show up, as everyone else had already arrived. A flicker of movement caught his attention and he watched as Kakashi approached the house from the Nara’s forest, damp and more than a little frazzled. 

“You seem to have had an eventful day,” Hiruzen noted as his jonin climbed the porch stairs. 

Kakashi gave him a bit of an aggrieved looked and said 

“The Kyuubi was training Naruto on advanced Water Walking while I was trying to get the rest of my team to learn Tree Walking, when Naruto dared the fox to do its worst. Did you know,” and this was said faux-cheerfully, “that the fox can summon miniature typhoons?” 

Hiruzen stared at Kakashi for a long moment before closing his eyes and rubbing his forehead. This was clearly going to be one of _those_ meetings and it hadn't even started yet. 

“I think,” he said slowly as he stood from his chair and made his way inside, feeling Kakashi follow him, “that you will need to start from the beginning, because that sentence raises way too many questions and has even more disturbing implications.” 

“Hai, Hokage-sama.” 

* * *

Hiruzen sat at the head of Shikaku’s dining table, flanked by only Inochi and Shikau, as Ibiki and Danzo were too busy to make this meeting, the former finishing up with Mizuki and the latter trying to figure out how many sharingan could be floating around, as Kakashi finished summarizing what had happened to him since he had taken on Team Seven, placing particular emphasis on his conversations with the Kyuubi, whose name was apparently Kurama, and _that_ was a sentence that Hiruzen never expected to think and dearly wished wasn’t true. 

“Well, this is a cluster fuck,” Inochi muttered to no one. 

Shikaku snorted. 

“No shit,” he said, running a hand down his face, “Okay. From the top, to make sure there are no misunderstandings. Confirmation from the Kyuubi that the Bijuu are artificial creations. The Kyuubi is no longer even hindered by Naruto’s seal, able to manifest and act completely independently of Naruto. The Kyuubi is threatening to start preying on civilians if Naruto’s stipend is not dramatically increased.” 

“That at least can be easily resolved,” Hiruzen interjected, “And I find myself in reluctant agreement with the points it raised in regards to Naruto’s financial situation.” 

“As do I,” Shikaku agreed, “but it's still blackmailing us. In addition the Kyuubi is training Naruto in both ninjutsu and fuuinjutsu, confirming that it was paying attention when Mito and Kushina were its jinchuurikis and explaining how it's managed to subvert Naruto’s seal. And as if all of _that_ wasn’t enough, Naruto and Sasuke are determined to reignite the Senju- Uchiha feud , _and_ the Kyuubi claims that Sasuke is not loyal to Konoha. Which you apparently agree with. Anything that I’ve missed?” 

“That the Kyuubi will take Naruto away from Konoha if the behavior of civilians towards him doesn’t improve,” Kakashi said, “And that the Kyuubi seems to know a lot about the sharingan and is willing to share.” 

“Right,” Shikaku muttered. 

There was a long minute of silence as everyone thought over the situation. Finally Hiruzen spoke. 

“The situation between Naruto and the civilians will likely take years to improve… and I don’t think the Kyuubi will wait that long.” He paused, remembering Naruto telling him how the Kyuubi could destroy Konoha and Kakashi saying that it had summoned a small typhoon on a dare without leaking its chakra and terrifying the whole village. “If it decides that it wants to leave and Naruto agrees, there’s nothing we can do without getting lots of good shinobi killed pointlessly. However,” he added, having a sudden thought, “They might be convinced to settle in one of Konoha’s satellite towns, where we can keep an eye on them. Actually, if I make that official we might be able to avoid a scene that ends with Naruto publicly leaving. It will take time to arrange, however. In the meantime, Kakashi, I want you to find out how much the Kyuubi knows about the sharingan and if it can be persuaded to tell us. Is there anything we can do about Sasuke’s lack of loyalty?” he asked Inochi. 

Inochi grimaced. 

“I’d have to take a look in Sasuke’s head to be sure, but from what I’m hearing it would probably take a complete mind wipe and personality rebuild, and leaving aside the ethics of doing that to one of our own, which are considerable – I would certainly refuse to do that unless he had already turned traitor – if Itachi found out he’d return with bared steel.” 

Everyone grimaced at that. 

“So the two largest problems are the two we cannot do much about,” Shikaku groaned, “Great.” 

He sighed. 

“Hokage-sama, with your permission, I’d like to attach Genma and Tenzo to Team Seven as guards.” 

“Are you questioning my ability to keep my team safe, Nara-sama?” Kakashi asked icily. 

“I prefer that any adversaries not reach your team in the first place,” Shikaku soothed, “I’d rather Sasuke not get tempted.” 

“Granted,” Hiruzen said, “Anything else?” 

“About the Kyuubi’s hunting proposal…” 

“Granted,” Hiruzen interrupted Kakashi, “Yes. Keep Naruto away from civilians as much as possible.” 

“So no D-ranks then?” Kakashi checked. 

“Definitely not. Anything else?” 

“What’s the situation with the Juubi?” Inochi asked. 

“I don’t have anything new,” Shikaku admitted. 

“I’ve sent a missive to Jiraya,” Hiruzen said, “but since it’ll be months for him to first get it and then make his way back here I’ve asked Enma to travel to other Summon Realms to ask what they know. Is that everything?” 

When no one else spoke up Hiruzen nodded and stood. 

“That’s the end of this meeting then. Goodnight everyone.” 

* * *

Naruto lay on his futon, half asleep and pleasantly full, Kurama curled up against his shoulder, head, and the wall, after a long day. Admittedly it was a bit early to go to sleep, but Naruto didn’t care, dozing in the cool breeze coming from the open window, the setting sun illuminating the far wall. 

Today had also been a bit odd. Kakashi-sensei had introduced two jonin, Genma-san, who Naruto knew back home due to the jonin being a member of Tou-chan’s guard, and Tenzo-san, who was that mokuton user that Kurama had been sensing on and off, mentioned that they knew about Kurama, instructed Naruto and his fellow genin to follow Shiba through their morning exercises, and (not literally) dragged Kurama off and began questioning the fox on what he knew of the sharingan. Then once training ended for the day Genma had followed Sasuke as he left while Tenzo had followed Naruto home before evidently going off shift, and Naruto hadn’t figured out who had replaced him, if anyone had. 

A knock on the door jolted both human and Bijuu back to full wakefulness. Blinking Naruto focused on the emotional signature on the other side of the door and realized that the Hokage was here. 

“One moment,” he called, hopping off the futon and rushing to the door. 

Opening it he said 

“Hokage-sama, be welcome in my home.” 

Once again this caused Sarutobi a flash of emotional pain, but the old man pushed it aside with practiced ease and smiled at Naruto, saying 

“I’m not here on official business, Naruto.” 

**_Remember, he asked you to call him_** ** _Jiji_ ** **_._ **

“Come on in, Jiji,” Naruto said, pushing down how wrong it felt to call someone not his namesake by the honorific. 

Sarutobi entered, sliding the door shut behind him, and froze at the sight of Kurama, who had twisted onto his back so that he could see the door and was looking at him upside-down, white tipped paws in the air. 

“So why are you here, Jiji?” Naruto asked, sitting down on the futon and rubbing Kurama’s belly. 

**_Don’t you dare make my paw twitch._ **

Naruto flashed a smirk at Kurama and immediately moved his hand towards _that spot_ only for Kurama to kick his arm away with a hind paw. Sarutobi shook himself out of his thoughts. 

“First,” he said, producing an envelope from his pocket, “as the Kyuubi-“ 

“He/I have a name,” Naruto and Kurama chorused, annoyed. 

Sarutobi paused, thought for a second, and continued 

“My apologies. As Kurama so unsubtly pointed out, your previous level of income is inadequate for your current needs, so I’ve increased it to four thousand a month.” He put the fat envelope onto Naruto’s desk and gave him a fond look. “Try not to spend it all on ramen.” 

Naruto huffed a laugh while Kurama chuckled. Sarutobi sobered, pulling out the chair from the desk and sitting on it, facing Naruto. 

“I’m also here to apologize,” he said, radiating feelings of sadness and self-loathing that put Naruto on edge, “I believed that keeping your parentage hidden was the best way to keep you safe from the many enemies Minato and Kushina made. I was planning on telling you about them once you reached chuunin.” 

Time seemed to stop. 

_Did he just…_

**_Yes. He did._ **

_So local me never…_

**_No._ **

“Excuse me,” Naruto said, and launched himself out the window, shapeshifting to a blonde fox on the way down, unable to stand being in Sarutobi’s presence a moment longer, and began to run to Tou-chan’s manor, suddenly having a desperate need to spend the night away from Konoha, and its Hokage.

* * *

Hiruzen felt like someone was stabbing him in the heart as he watched Naruto flee his presence. He hoped that one day Naruto would be able to forgive him, but fully understood that that might never happen, especially since Naruto had apparently been unaware that it had been done on his orders. There was a flicker of movement in the corner of his eye and he turned to find himself nose to nose with the Kyuubi no Kitsune in all its glory. Solid red-orange fur, crimson eyes, black markings stretching from the eyes to the tips of its long ears, nine tails waving behind it. 

**“I’ll be generous** **,”** The Kyuubi growled, “ **and assume that you don’t fully understand the magnitude of what you have done given that the** **Sarutobi** **are a** ** _minor_** **clan.”**

That stung. 

“I had to keep him safe! If Minato’s enemies-” 

“ **And what a wonderful job you have done,”** the fox mocked, “ **Hated by most, shunned by all. Grown up alone save for me. All it cost was his very identity as the heir of a bloodline that can trace its lineage from Asura and one of the last legacies of Konoha's sister village. Was that your intent?”**

**“** No! If no one knew then no one would look for him. It would shield him from the attentions of the other nations.” 

“ **You still had no right to keep that information from Naruto, or let him grow up alone. Minato and** **Kushina** **had dozens of friends who would have happily taken Naruto in.”**

**“** It could have caused people to notice-” 

“ **You let your fears of ifs and maybes deny Naruto any chance at a family. That is a level of cruelty that I would have expected from Danzo,** **Hiruzen** **. Let me be clear,”** The fox snarled, causing Hiruzen to lean back, “ **The only reason Konoha is not looking for a new** **Hokage** **is because of the threat of the** **Juubi** **. Having Konoha go through a succession crisis right now is a bad idea. But the moment that is over, there will be a reckoning.”**

The Kyuubi disintegrated with a burst of crimson chakra, leaving Hiruzen in an empty apartment. 

After a long moment that he spent calming his nerves, Hiruzen rose and left the apartment, making his way home in silence. He didn’t announce himself upon entering his manor, now after full dark, and ate the leftovers Asuma had left for him, the rest of his family having already eaten hours ago without him. He still had not spoken when he sat on his bed, looking at the spot where his wife had once slept next to him, slain on the same day Naruto was born. 

Alone in the darkness, a broken old man wept. 

* * *

Deep within Iwa’s territory, secluded in a tree that offered a great view of a women’s onsen, Jiraya had just settled down for some “research” when he was abruptly summoned to Mount Myobuku. He was not the only one. Across the entire continent, one by one those with major summoning contracts found themselves abruptly being reverse summoned and informed about the threat of the Juubi. Jiraya, however, had quite a bit more to learn. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naruto’s assertion that he doesn’t know much about fuuinjutsu is more due to the dunning-kruger effect than modesty or humility. He knows enough to know just how much he doesn’t know. That said, fuuinjutsu knowledge in Family verse is significantly more advanced than in cannon, as an example Jiraya, in cannon, is considered a fuuinjutsu master, but in Family he’s ranked as a journyman. 
> 
> Kakashi wasn’t aiming for Shiba’s nostril, but he’ll happily take credit for it. 
> 
> I’ve changed the name of the tree exercise because you don’t need chakra to climb a tree. You do need it if you want to walk on a tree though. 
> 
> Kurama’s declaration against Hiruzen is part bluff, part threat, and made in anger. He doesn’t actually intend to kill Hiruzen. He’s also forgotten that he doesn’t wield the enormous amount of soft power in this timeline that the Bijuu have in his native one. Hiruzen also intended to bring up living outside of Konoha during that meeting.
> 
> The difference between a major and minor summons contract is if the summons has their own realm, I.e. Mount Myobuku. 
> 
> Most of the major revelations have been had, so expect more and longer time skips in future chapters. 
> 
> Also, I so, so wanted Kakashi to call Kurama anklebiter, but I just couldn't fit it in. :(


	8. Chapter 8

Anko sat down at the table with a plate of her favorite dango, looking forward to relaxing for the next two days. Ibiki had been running her ragged on the Mizuki situation, which seemed odd considering how people _still_ questioned her loyalty and that normally Ibiki and/or Inochi would be front and center in the investigating of a traitor, but apparently there had been an all-hands situation and Mizuki was the _lesser_ problem. Equally odd was that nobody she talked to could figure out what the major problem was, or if they had they were already sworn to silence. Still, Mizuki was scheduled to be quietly executed tomorrow morning, as all of his contacts had skipped town or were literal dead ends and everything that he knew had been taken from him. 

She raised the stick of dango to her mouth and was about to bite when she was reverse summoned. Unfortunately, neither the chair or, more importantly, the stick of dango, had come with her. Landing painfully on her tailbone she was instantly distracted from the loss of her beloved dango by the echoes of combat and the screams of the wounded and dying. Quickly looking around she saw that she was in a giant cave dimly lit by glowing moss and there was an enormous white snake with a very distinctive headdress staring at her. Anko swallowed. She knew who this was, Orochimaru had spoken of her. The White Snake Sage. 

“Get up,” the snake hissed, “We don’t have much time.” 

“Yes, White-sama,” Anko said, flipping herself to her feet, “What’s going on?” 

“Manda is launching a coup,” White explained, slithering deeper into the cave fast enough that Anko had to jog to keep up, “And he’s summoned Orochimaru to help him.” 

“Orochimaru’s here?” Anko yelped. 

“Which is why we don’t have much time.” 

White sent out a brief pulse of chakra and a completely unremarkable section of cave wall faded away to reveal a library filled with scrolls. Anko and White darted in and the wall reformed behind them. 

“That won’t hold for long, they’ll sense our chakra soon enough.” White looked at Anko, “Short version, there’s an ancient monster known as the Juubi and someone is trying to resurrect it. If they succeed, the world dies. Manda believes the Juubi is naught but a myth used to scare hatchlings, but I was born less than two hundred years after it was slain, and I remember the devastation it wrought that was still healing. We argued, things began to escalate, and Orochimaru was brought in to mediate.” 

Anko knew where this was going, but the intense look from White kept her from saying anything. 

“Orochimaru has turned himself into a monster, and I do not speak metaphorically. I know not what he has done to himself, but to those of us who can sense the natural order of the world, he stands out as an abomination. I ordered that he be stricken from the contract and be banished, but Manda refused. He doesn’t care who or what allows him to slate his bloodlust, so long as the blood flows, and Orochimaru was quick to promise him plenty of death. Things escalated.” An enormous explosion sent a tremor through the ground and small pebbles fell from the ceiling. “And now I have to safeguard what I can of my species’ history and knowledge, for Manda has proven himself unworthy of the latter and will likely destroy much of the former.” 

“You speak as though his victory is already assured,” Anko noted worriedly. 

White paused, sighed, and began to slither towards the scrolls, looking over them. 

“I am old, Anko-kun, but even if I was in my prime and Manda did not have Orochimaru assisting him my death would still be guaranteed. Manda has specialized in the arts of war, and I have not. Now, do you know how to make a storage seal?” 

“Yes, sama.” 

White rolled a blank scroll of vellum at Anko with a flick of her tail, followed by a stoppered ink well and several quills. 

“Do so.” 

Anko quickly began to ink in a standard storage seal as White began to pile scrolls next to her. 

“What do you want me to do with these after you send me back?” 

“Jiraya still lives, yes?” 

Anko nodded. 

“Then have him take them to the toads. They’ll be able to protect them from Manda.” 

Anko finished the seal and began to insert scrolls into it, asking 

“Can Konoha make copies of these?” 

“It’s not like I’d be able to stop you,” White said bitterly, “though given how old most of these are Kurama-dono is likely the only one able to read them, and human and Summon physiology are too different for you to make use of the jutsus.” 

Anko nodded. She didn’t know who this Kurama person was, but the Hokage probably did. Human and Sage frantically continued sealing scrolls as fast as they could for over a dozen minutes before the wall separating the library from the cave shook from an impact, seals flaring across it. 

“Seal those last scrolls and get ready to be sent back,” White snapped, slithering deeper into the library. 

Sealing the last three scrolls Anko rolled up the storage scroll, noting that the seal was looking a bit singed. When White returned with an ornate scroll in her mouth Anko was holding her scroll tight to her chest, nervously watching the seals on the wall fade with each hit, chunks of the wall now breaking free. She wasn’t so distracted to not recognize the scroll White was carrying, however. 

“Is that the Snake Contract?” 

White spat the scroll onto the floor. 

“Yes, I will destroy it after sending you back. Should make things difficult for them. Are-“ 

The wall exploded. Anko flinched, looked over, and locked eyes with her former sensei just as she was sent back to Konoha. 

Reappearing exactly where she had left she stared at her untouched dango, adrenaline pounding through her veins and clutching the scroll in her arms with a death grip. In such a state of heightened alertness there was no way she would miss the puff of summoning smoke, causing her to whirl around, instinctively drawing a kunai, in time to see Gai materialize from the dispersing cloud. 

“Anko-san are you alright?” Gai asked, concerned. 

Anko took several deep breaths before saying 

“I need to see the Hokage.” 

“Juubi?” Gai asked. 

“And Sensei.” 

Gai’s face hardened. 

“Then we should make a most youthful time.” 

* * *

They were not the only ones. Upon arriving at the Hokage’s office there were a dozen and a half of jonin and chuunin waiting outside, most of whom Anko recognized as fellow summoners, and a pair of ANBU guarding the door. 

“Juubi as well?” ANBU Bear asked. 

“Yes,” Gai answered. 

“Hokage-sama is currently eating lunch, but will see all of you immediately after.” 

“Anyone know someone by the name of Kurama?” Anko asked. 

Everyone glanced among themselves. 

“You don’t mean the minor clan, do you?” a shinobi she didn’t know asked. 

“No, I don’t think so. Does anyone know anything? He’s supposed to be living in Konoha currently.” 

After another long pause ANBU Hawk slowly said 

“That depends on where you heard that name.” 

“The White Snake Sage told me to find him, shortly before Orochimaru killed her.” The shinobi in the room were too disciplined to break into muttering, but Anko could tell she had everyone’s undivided attention. “Supposedly he’s the only one who can translate this.” She tapped the scroll she was holding. “She called him dono.” 

The two ANBU quickly signed at each other in their personal sign language, which Anko didn’t know. 

“I take it he’s classified?” She asked when neither of them spoke. 

“Extremely so,” Hawk said, “I cannot tell you more without the Hokage’s approval.” 

She nodded and settled in to wait. Several minutes later the door opened and the Hokage called for them to enter. 

* * *

Hiruzen rubbed his forehead. Apparently when he had sent Enma to find out what the other Summons knew about the Juubi he had caused an international and interdimensional panic, resulting in him being in an eighty-twenty meeting. So named because it took twenty percent of the meeting to resolve eighty percent of the problems raised, but the remaining twenty percent of the issues would take the rest. In this case the twenty percent effort went to reassuring his shinobi that he already knew about the Juubi and checking to see if they knew anything he didn’t, which turned out to be a no. From their testimonies he determined that roughly half of the various Summons species were willing to throw everything they had at making sure the Juubi wasn’t resurrected, but others were split. The Elders of those species had been raised hearing about the Juubi and grown up amongst the still healing devastation, and were taking the threat seriously. The younger generations, however, either dismissed the Juubi as a myth or believed that the stories of its strength were exaggerated. 

Thing was, Hiruzen had passed through the Mountain’s Graveyard once during the Second War on a secret recon mission, and if that was the aftermath of a battle with the Juubi then Hiruzen was inclined to agree with the various elders about the threat it posed. Hiruzen made a mental note to have someone check to see how many summoners were not alerted by their summons, because he knew that there would be some who would deny the threat and it would be useful to know who they were. 

And then Anko gave her report on the Snakes. 

“Orochimaru saw me escape with this,” she said, finishing her report and tapping the scroll she was holding, “even if he was inclined to write it off, unlikely as that may be, Manda won’t. I don’t see anyway they could have stopped White-sama from destroying the Snake contract, so it will take some time for him to get back here, longer if he or Manda want to summon the latter. We should have a few months.” 

There was considerable disquiet at this and Hiruzen rubbed his forehead, thinking. The next Chuunin Exams were being hosted at Konoha this year, and he _knew_ that his former student would attack then, as the large numbers of visitors would allow Orochimaru to infiltrate Konoha with little trouble. There was nothing he could do to stop that.

“If Konoha is going to be attacked because of that scroll I want to know what’s in it,” Hiruzen ordered. 

Anko nodded and started to unroll the scroll before stopping and looking around the room. 

“I’ll take it to Ibiki-sama once this meeting is over?” she asked. 

Hiruzen nodded. 

“White-sama said that we’ll need someone called Kurama to translate the scrolls,” she reminded him. 

He frowned. 

“Translate, not decode?” 

She nodded. He thought for a moment and pulled out a sheet of paper and jotted down an order for Ibiki to ask the Kyuubi if it would translate and what to reveal about it. Folding it in half he sealed it and handed it to ANBU Mouse who passed it to Anko. 

“Ibiki’s eyes only,” he told her. 

“Yes, Sama.” 

“Is there anything else?” he asked the room. 

When no one responded he said 

“Dismissed. Turtle-san, please send in my next appointment.” 

* * *

Anko looked up from the scroll she was copying when she heard the door to the converted conference room open, along with the half dozen scribes sharing the room with her. Ibiki entered the crowded room, which had lost almost a third of its space to the pyramids made of the hundred-odd scrolls that Anko had taken, and the stacks of blank scrolls weren’t helping the space issue. Noticing her boss looking rather annoyed Anko thought about asking if there was a problem when an ancient man, bent almost double with long white beard and hair – where he still had hair – that reached his knees hobbled in on a cane. 

Ibiki shut the door behind him and said 

“This is Kurama. He is a non-human shapeshifter, and can take any form he wishes.” That last part was pointedly directed at Kurama before Ibiki addressed the rest of the room. “That is all you’re cleared to know.” 

“If he can take any form he wants,” one of the scribes hesitantly said, “why is he in the form of an old man?” 

“Ma, ma,” Kurama creaked, voice perfectly matching his appearance, “young Kakashi-kun said that I should act my age and I decided to humor him. Where is the scroll you need me to translate?” 

“All of these,” Anko said, gesturing at the wall of scrolls, “But _can_ you translate them?” 

“Let’s see.” 

Kurama used his cane to pull the chair next to Anko out from the table, put on a pair of almost comically thick spectacles – causing Ibiki to roll his eyes – and peered at the scroll Anko had been copying. 

“No wonder you need my help,” Kurama murmured, “it’s been fifteen-hundred years since I last saw this dialect, and eighteen-hundred since it was in common…” 

He trailed off staring at the scroll before pointedly asking 

“Where did you get these again?” 

Anko glanced at Ibiki, who grimaced but nodded at her, and she once again reported what had happened in the Snake Summons Realm. As she did so she noticed the moment that she had Kurama’s undivided attention. He sat up straight – completely straight, like a young man – his glasses dispersed like a dismissed henge, and he got a slight frown. When she finished he asked with a voice that was strong and deep 

“Did White-san explicitly call Orochimaru an abomination or are you paraphrasing?” 

“Explicitly,” Anko confirmed. 

Kurama scowled and leaned back in his chair. 

“I take it that means something to you?” Ibiki asked. 

“To those of us who can sense the natural order of the world, yes.” The – currently – old man answered, “It means that he has violated life and death and bound his soul to this world, allowing his followers to resurrect him if he falls.” 

Kurama fixed them with a dark look. 

“Let me be clear, there is a _cost_ for doing this. They are cursed to wander the planet as a disembodied spirit upon death, unable to pass on to the Pure Lands, and that’s ignoring how their sanity deteriorates over time, inevitably resulting in them devolving into demons.” 

“Is that how the Bijuu came to be?” one of the scribes asked. 

Kurama shook his head. 

“The Bijuu are fallen guardians, not demons.” 

“Then why are they called demons?” Anko challenged. 

“Ignorance. For several centuries after the Juubi War if you were not human you were automatically a demon and agent of evil,” Kurama said bitterly, “If everyone constantly calls and treats you like a monster and there’s no one to convince you otherwise, eventually you start to believe it.” 

“Back to Orochimaru,” Ibiki said, “Is there no way to kill him?” 

“Killing him’s the easy part,” Kurama answered, “The problem is that he’ll keep coming back until someone manages to seal him away.” The old man paused, thought for a moment, then looked at Ibiki. “Did Minato leave a copy of his notes on Death God Seals in the village’s main vaults? Cause feeding Orochimaru to the Shinigami would probably work.” 

Ibiki’s eyes widened and he whipped around to glare at everyone in the room. 

“This is extremely classified,” he said quickly, “If I hear any of you discussing this anyone not authorized, which is just me, the Jonin Commander, and the Hokage, _you will be executed on the spot._ Am I clear?” 

“Yes, Sama,” all the humans said. 

Kurama gave them an apologetic look. Ibiki inhaled deeply and sighed, turning back to Kurama. 

“The Fourth would have kept any notes in his personal vault. Back to the _original_ matter,” he said before Kurama could say anything, “Can you read these scrolls and what are they?” 

Kurama looked back at the scroll in front of him and answered 

“I can, and this one seems to recount a fight against the Juubi.” 

“Will you help translate them?” Ibiki asked. 

In answer a half dozen clones poofed into existence and began to pull out chairs next to the other scribes. 

“Why does your chakra feel like the Kyuubi’s?” one of the older scribes asked. 

Anko blinked. She had noticed Kurama’s non-human chakra the moment he sat next to her yet hadn’t given it much thought – Ibiki had told them that Kurama wasn’t human – but now that he mentioned it… 

“Classified,” Ibiki said, cutting off that line of thought, grabbing a scroll and chair and sitting down at the table. 

Several hours passed by in relative silence, the humans making an exact copy of the scrolls while Kurama and his clones made a translated one. 

Then Kurama abruptly looked off into thin air, summoned another clone, said “Excuse me,” and dispersed with a burst of crimson chakra. 

“What kind of clone was that?” someone asked. 

“Classified,” one of the other Kurama clones grunted. 

* * *

Kurama manifested on the Seishan Sekai, answering Gyuuki’s call, and found Gyuuki, Matatabi, Saiken, and Chomei waiting for him. 

“ **Are we waiting for Shukaku and Isobu?”** Kurama asked without preamble. 

Everyone but Saiken seemed surprised, apparently expecting him to have made some nasty and/or snide remark like he would have before Naruto Senior had found him. 

**“No,** **”** Gyuuki answered, **“** **Isobu is enslaved by a** **genjutsu that we can’t break and** **Shukaku** **has been driven insane by his seals.** **Kurama do you** **have any idea what’s going on?”**

**“** **Aside from the obvious?”** Kurama asked, pointedly looking where Koukuko and Son Goku had been. 

**“I meant regarding why summons are panicking,** **”** Gyuuki answered, **“but if you happen to know anything about** **that as well…”**

**“The summons are panicking** **_because_ ** **of that.** **If the Juubi returns** **their deaths are as assured** **as ours** **.** **As to what I know… what do you know of Zetsu?”**

The other Bijuu looked amongst each other for a long moment before Matatabi said 

**“I don’t think any of us have heard of anyone by that name.”**

Kurama proceeded to tell them what he knew of Kaguya’s saboteur. Its’ origins, goal, and preferred tactics. 

**“How did you learn all of that?”** Chomei asked once he finished. 

**“Forbidden Secret,”** Kurama said. 

**“That’s not something to invoke lightly, Kurama,”** Gyuuki warned. 

**“If the situation was reversed would** **you accept that explanation?”** Matatabi asked pointedly. 

They had a point. 

**“Fine. Time travel is possible** **, but I won’t say more, other than it wasn’t me who** **did it.”**

That mollified his siblings. 

**“Do you know anything from** **your home reality that could help?”** Saiken asked, **“We’re limited in what we can do** **while sealed, but we can** **advise our Jinchuuriki.”**

**“For what good that’s worth,”** Chomei buzzed bitterly. 

**“Bad Jinchuuriki?”** Kurama asked. 

**“** **Fuu’s great, I’m her best friend and she listens to me, but her village is horrible to her,”** Chomei explained angrily, **“They treat her like a thing and constantly abuse her.”**

Kurama looked at her thoughtfully and asked 

**“Who are** **your Jinchuurikis?”**

**“Killer B.” “Yugito.” “** **Fuu.”** **“Utakata,”** Saiken finished, **“** **Shukaku has Gaara and** **Isobu has Yagura.”**

Kurama lightly frowned in thought and slowly said 

**“With the exception of Isobu those are the humans you are partnered with back home.”**

There was a pause while everyone digested that before Gyuuki muttered 

**“** **I have no idea what to make of that.”**

Kurama nodded to himself. 

**“How much** **do you trust** **your Jinchuuriki?”** he asked. 

The Bijuu once again glanced at each other. 

**“I think I speak for all of us when I say a fair bit,”** Gyuuki answered. 

**“With your life?”** Kurama pressed. 

**“Where are you going with this?”** Saiken asked. 

The kitsune took a breath and, using memory transfer, sent his knowledge of the Chosen seal to his siblings. 

**“Kurama, what am I looking at?”** Matatabi asked. 

Kurama settled in to teach his siblings about the seal that guarded his own soul and how to apply it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Orochimaru is not the first to seek immortality at any cost.
> 
> Kurama had pranked Kakashi with a modified whoopie cushion that had seals applied to make it unnaturally long and loud, and spent the entire trip to the conference room trolling Ibiki, acting like the scatterbrained old man he was appearing as. By the time they reached Anko the latter's temper was a bit frayed.
> 
> Minato did in fact keep his notes on the Shinigami in the manor's vault, and they were destroyed when the vault self-destructed.
> 
> None of the Jinchuuriki will switch to the Chosen seal right away - Fuu and Utakata lack the means to apply it and Yugito and B need to convince A to let them use it.


	9. Chapter 9

Hiruzen leaned back and let out a sigh of relief. He had just received word that Team Seven had left Konoha on a three day hunting expedition, which Kakashi wanted to make a weekly occurrence, along with an ANBU attachment shadowing them just in case. Which meant that there shouldn't be any crisis today given that damn fox was not in the village currently. He desperately needed a break. 

Naturally Hiruzen had barely had that thought when Enma summoned himself to his side, and he brought Jiraya with him. 

“Sensei, we have a problem.” 

Hiruzen’s forehead announced its engagement with his desk with a loud _thunk_. 

* * *

Naruto lounged on his futon with a pleasantly full belly, dozing. The hunting expedition had been decently successful, and he had enough venison and rabbit in his fridge to last most of a week. He and Kakashi-sensei had been the ones who had brought down the stag after Sasuke and Sakura’s botched attempt at stealth had spooked it, which didn't surprise Naruto given that this was their first try, but at least they had spooked it into running towards the former two and Naruto’s new kunai – that he had bought under a henge – had worked perfectly, piercing the deer’s lung while Kakashi-sensei’s hit its’ heart from the other side. Naruto was looking forward to eating its liver tomorrow for breakfast. 

Kurama had left to see if Ibiki would let him translate some more of the Snake Scrolls. While quite a few were about the recovery of the Snakes after the war, or detailed jutsus that only snakes and serpents could learn – said jutsus were designed to be used by sapient ropes of coiled muscle and would have to be remade from first principles to allow humans to learn it – many detailed the Juubi War and made for interesting if horrifying reading. The Snakes only truly joined in late in the war, but they had been taking refugees since the beginning, many of whom had recorded their tales. 

A knock on the door jolted Naruto out of his mid-afternoon nap. Blinking he looked at the door with both eyes and empathy and realized that the Hokage and an unknown were standing outside. When someone knocked on the door again he hauled himself out of bed, took three steps, and opened the door. He paused in surprise at the sight of Jiraya but turned to the Hokage and coolly greeted him. 

“Hokage-sama, be welcome in my home.” He turned to Jiraya. “Do I know you?” 

From a few questions he had made while under a henge he had been under the impression that the Toad Sage had quietly deserted Konoha like Tsunade-hime had, given that no one had seen him in the village for nigh on a decade. How did the Hokage get him to come back? Especially given the flash of embarrassment and guilt Naruto felt from him when he greeted him. 

“Hello, Naruto,” Jiraya said nervously, “I’m Jiraya the Toad Sage.” He glanced at Sarutobi, who gave him a _look,_ let out a small sigh, and said “I’m your godfather.” 

“Don’t lie,” Naruto said coldly. 

“Minato really did make him your godfather, Naruto,” Sarutobi said as Jiraya winced, “But this isn’t a conversation to be had in the hallway.” 

Naruto hesitated before letting them in and shutting the door behind them. 

“So what were you doing that kept you too busy to be my godfather?” Naruto asked, sparking another flash of guilt from the sanin. 

"Hunting Orochimaru," Jiraya said.

"Any success?"

“Not much,” he very reluctantly admitted, clearly unwilling to say no. 

“And would you have had as much success had you stayed in Konoha?” 

Jiraya was silent for a long moment, prompting even Sarutobi to raise an eyebrow at his former student. 

“That’s not why we’re here,” Jiraya said, his lack of an answer as telling as an explicit one, “I’m here to check your seal.” 

Naruto closed his eyes, mentally poked Kurama, and when he opened them his right retained its normal blue but his left was crimson and slitted. 

_“You have our attention,”_ Naruto said, Kurama’s voice overlaying his own. 

Both humans stiffened. 

“That is disturbing,” Jiraya noted. 

Naruto felt Kurama alter his left teeth and grined at Jiraya, who shuddered at the sight of half human teeth and half vulpine fangs. 

_“Why do want to see our seal?_ _”_ Naruto asked. 

“To make sure he didn’t make a mistake when he modified it,” Jiraya answered. 

Naruto crossed his arms so that the black claws on his left hand were on top as Kurama began to thicken the hair on his left side into orange fur, narrowing his eyes at the sanin. 

_“And what counts as a mistake?”_

“Anything that would cause an eventful failure of the seal,” Hiruzen said, looking at Jiraya as much as Naruto, “Not anything that…” 

He trailed off as both humans visibly watched Naruto’s left ear climb up the side of his head as became triangular and fuzzy, occasionally swiveling slightly. Naruto continued not reacting to the changes Kurama was making to his body, though both of them were snickering in their shared mindscape. 

“Naruto what are you doing?” Sarutobi finished. 

_“_ _We do not understand your question,”_ Naruto said as he sat on his futon and kicked off his left sandal so that Kurama could change that leg to digitigrade, blatantly flexing his now double jointed leg. 

Sarutobi went through several interesting facial expressions before settling on exasperation. 

“You’re trying to troll us, aren’t you.” 

_“_ _Or are we the logical end result of the_ _Jinchuuriki_ _program?”_ Naruto challenged, holding his hands in front of him, palms turned upwards, “human,” he said in his normal voice, generating a blue burning will-o-wisp over his human hand, **“and** **Bijuu** **,”** Kurama said, igniting a crimson will-o-wisp over his vulpine hand, _“as one.”_ The flames turned purple. 

Whoever said that trolling had to serve one purpose?

There was a long moment of silence before Jiraya said, both alarmed and disturbed, 

“Yeah, I’m going to need to look at your seal. Now.” 

Naruto sighed. 

_“Fine, if you insist.”_

He pulled off his shirt and, with a flicker of chakra and thought, lit up his seal, which stretched from collarbone to just above his groin and wrapped around his flanks to meet over his spine. Both Jiraya and Sarutobi stared in shock. 

“Jiraya,” Sarutobi finally said, “what am I looking at?” 

“I have no idea,” Jiraya admitted, “not only is this seal an order of magnitude larger than Minato’s, but its complexity is on par with the most advanced seals Uzushio ever made. I don’t even recognize many of the characters used, _and_ it’s compressed as well.” 

As Jiraya brought his hands together in preparation to do a jutsu Kurama spoke from Naruto’s mouth. 

**“There’s** **a self-destruct worked into this, and it’ll use my chakra to fuel itself,”** he warned, **“** **doing anything invasive would be…** **_ill advised._ ** **_”_ **

As Jiraya froze and Sarutobi looked alarmed, Kurama took brief control over Naruto’s face to smirk at them. 

**“** **Unless you want to see how big an explosion that would make.** **How big do you think** **the** **Konoha** **Crater would be? Ten kilometers? Maybe fifteen? Think we could crack the planet's crust?”**

“Alright,” Jiraya snapped, pulling his hands apart, “Alright, I get it! No jutsus.” 

He still leaned in to get a closer look at the seal. 

“Can you tell us more about the seal, Naruto,” Sarutobi asked, “or am I speaking to Kurama?” 

“Both,” Naruto said, dropping the double voice, “But why should we? The more people who know a secret, the greater the chance it will leak.” 

“True,” the Hokage admitted, reaching forward to pull Jiraya back as Naruto began to lean away from him, “but I at least need to know what would set off the self-destruct, and I would prefer to know if it protects you against something like what happened when you were born.” 

Naruto thought for a moment and consulted with Kurama before answering. 

“Tampering with the seal will set it off, though there are lesser defenses that need to be bypassed before that happens, and those defenses are formidable by themselves. I am immune to any genjutsus that directly affect me, up to and including the sharingan, though given the sheer variety of bullshit the mankegyo can have some of those abilities I’m only resistant to.” 

“Interesting, and useful,” Sarutobi mused before starting slightly “Before I forget again, I have been considering relocating you and Team Seven to one of Konoha’s satellite towns as a means of solving the problems with civilians. Your thoughts?” 

Naruto frowned, but it was Kurama who spoke 

**“** **While tempting, the problem is whoever is hunting us to resurrect the** **Juubi** **.** **While remaining in** **Konoha** **is… less than ideal,** **we are surrounded by a significant number of reinforcements should a threat** **reach us.** **There are few places that can withstand forces capable of** **subduing a** **Bujuu** **.** **“**

There was a pause before the Bijuu slowly continued 

**“That said…** **there are several long abandoned fortresses, some dating back to the** **Juubi** **War, that I might be able to** **reawaken… I’ll have to think on this.”**

“What do you mean by ‘reawaken’?” Jiraya asked cautiously. 

**“** **Fortresses whose defenses were made from** **chakra and willing sacrifices as much as earth and steel,”** Kurama answered, **“** **several actually managed to hold off the** **Juubi** **for some time** **before they fell. But fall they did, and then the ruins have been ravaged by time.** **Those are likely not viable, but I do** **know of nine… no, seven,** **places that are probably still intact,** **even though they have been abandoned for centuries.”**

Sarutobi looked to be in deep thought while Jiraya looked at him. 

“I think,” The Hokage said, “that I’d like to know the location of these fortresses.” He looked at Jiraya. “Studying them will greatly improve Konoha’s defenses.” 

**“Do you have a map?”**

Jiraya did have a map on him as it turned out, though it was covered in encrypted notes. Naruto easily gave Kurama control over his body and watched as the fox noted down nineteen different locations, scattered across the entire continent, though three were within Fire’s borders. 

**“I’m not putting down the seven I mentioned,** **as those they were built to defend still exist, even if they haven’t used them in a very long time.** **”**

“Summons?” Jiraya asked, “Or Bijuu?” 

Kurama paused. 

**“What has** **Gamamaru** **-san told you about our creation?”**

“He told me _a_ story of your creation.” 

“Jiraya,” Sarutobi said sharply. 

Jiraya looked at his former mentor, sighed, and explained how the Sage of the Six Paths created the Bijuu, doing his best to interject doubt into the tale. 

**“** **Gamamaru** **-san spoke truly,”** Kurama said once Jiraya had finished, **“** **Ototsuki** **Hagoromo** **is indeed our father.** **Gamamaru** **-san also assisted** **in** **our** **design and** **education** **, though that stopped after** **Tou** **-san was** **killed due to no one able** **to summon him.”**

“I find it difficult to believe that the Great Sage m- beings like the Bijuu,” Jiraya said skeptically. 

**“It has been two. Thousand. Years,”** Kurama bit out, **“Are you the same person you were twenty years ago, or as a child?** **Indra** **slew our** **tou** **-san when our age could still be measured in months.** **Had he lived I have no doubt that everyone** **would have been better off and we would not have fallen,** **but now we reflect humanity’s** **hate and fear of the Other rather than** **hope and wisdom like** **tou** **-san intended.”**

Jiraya opened his mouth but Sarutobi grabbed his shoulder and shook his head at him, causing him to reluctantly close it. 

“The seven fortresses that you’re not telling us about belong to the other Bijuu, don’t they?” Sarutobi stated, “What happened to the other two?” 

Kurama thought for a moment and decided that there was no harm in telling. 

**“** **Kokou’s** **was located on a volcanic island** **in the south of the continent that blew itself apart in an eruption, and him along with it.** **Isobu** **turned his into Turtle Island.”**

Both humans stared at Naruto. 

“How the hell,” Jiraya muttered, “did it manage that?” 

**“If you ever find out,”** Kurama said with wry amusement, **“** **let us know. Even Isobu doesn't.”**

“Well,” Sarutobi said, “It has been… interesting talking with you Naruto-kun, Kurama-san, but I need to get back to my office and Jiraya has an expedition to plan.” 

“I do?” Jiraya asked. 

“Yes,” the Hokage said as he steered the Toad Sage out the door, “you do.” 

* * *

Kakashi casually entered Isoroku's, a shinobi run restaurant founded by a Senju of the same name – before he died in his sleep from a stroke – during the early years of the Nidaime’s reign, catering to the universal paranoia of the shinobi with seals on all of their tables that created a bubble two meters wide centered on it that didn’t allow sounds to escape and booths that were surrounded on three sides by five centimeters of Hashirama Tree hardwood, save for those against the outer wall, which had windows. Naturally Isoroku’s was also outside the price range of pretty much everyone other than jonin, and while the food was good, it wasn’t quite worth its price, though the near guaranteed secrecy you got – something that the restaurant both took seriously and great pride in – made up for it. 

Gai, Anko, and Iruka had been pestering him for the past couple weeks to have a meetup with them to mark the two month anniversary of him taking on Team Seven. Kakashi had tried to get out of it by saying he’d only do it if they went to Isoroku’s. He hadn’t expected them to agree. 

He was, of course, running late, though it wasn’t his fault this time. When he had dismissed Team Seven early Naruto had gotten curious about what he was up to, and as Kurama was still busy with a project with Ibiki there was no one to distract the blonde Uzumaki. But Kakashi had managed to get away from him. 

Entering the restaurant he spotted Gai enthusiastically waving at him from a window booth and he made his way over to them. 

“My Eternal Rival!” Gai happily boomed as Kakashi slid in next to Iruka, already making the jonin thankful for the silencing seals, “It Is Good To See You On This Fine Youthful Day!” 

“Gai,” Anko said with a pained smile, “please, for the sake of our eardrums, quiet down.” 

“Apologies, Anko-san,” Gai said at a much more reasonable volume. 

“So how’s it been teaching them?” Iruka asked. 

“Stressful,” Kakashi said, provoking wry laughs from those with students and a grin from Anko, “Especially since I’ve been assigned an absolute disaster of a team.” 

Gai laughed. 

“There’s no need to be melodramatic, my Rival. Your team is certainly not that bad. I have tales that can prove that my team can be just as bad as yours.” 

“So one of your genin is almost certainly going to turn traitor?” 

The other three looked at Kakashi in surprise. 

“It’s Naruto, isn’t it?” Anko said. 

Iruka puffed up in outrage at the accusation towards his favorite student, but Kakashi answered before he could unleash a tirade on Anko. 

“Naruto is more likely to pull a Tsunade than a Orochimaru, but him too,” Kakashi said, “Though his reasons for doing so are both known and in the process of being mitigated.” 

“What reasons are those?” Gai asked. 

“People baselessly accusing him just because he’s involved or associated with something, for starters,” Kakashi said pointedly. 

Both Gai and Anko looked shamefaced. 

“I’m sorry, Kakashi,” Anko apologized. 

“I feel I must apologize too, my Rival,” Gai said, “for my mind immediately went to Naruto-kun being the problem as well.” 

Kakashi sighed. 

“It’s not me you need to apologize to. Anyway the problem is Sasu-“ 

There was a chime as a waitress crossed the silence seal boundary to take their orders. After she left Kakashi said 

“The problem is Sasuke. He-“ 

A blonde furred blue eyed cat jumped onto Kakashi’s lap with a “Mmmrrt” of greeting, padded across his lap and settled down into a loaf with its hind legs on Kakashi’s right leg and its forelegs on Iruka’s left, purring happily. 

Everyone stared. 

“Kakashi, when did you get a cat?” Iruka asked. 

“I didn’t.” 

They watched as Iruka read the metal tag on the cat’s collar. 

“I love,” he flipped it over “ramen.” 

The cat purred louder. 

Kakashi picked up the cat and dropped it on the floor next to the booth, only for the cat to jump back onto his lap. This repeated several times until he gave up and allowed the cat to sit on him, and he could swear that it’s purring became smug with victory when he conceded. Looking at his three friends he saw they were obviously amused. 

“I’m glad this is entertaining you,” Kakashi grumbled. 

They chuckled. 

“Anyway, Sasuke is the one I’m fairly sure is going to become a traitor.” 

“The last Uchiha?” Gai said, surprised, “Why?” 

“He’s completely absorbed by his desire to kill his brother and views everyone as either an asset to use to improve himself or an obstacle to remove. His loyalty to Konoha only extends to how useful we are to him. I might have been able to mitigate that if it wasn’t for Naruto surpassing him in every category.” 

“Really?” Iruka asked, surprised, “Naruto?” 

Kakashi nodded. 

“And Naruto refuses to help Sasuke with anything, says he won't teach someone who’s greatest desire is to become a kinslayer.” 

“Which is understandable. How good is Naruto?” Gai asked. 

“I’d also like to know more about why you think Naruto is going to defect as well,” Iruka said. 

“He’s easily chuunin level in terms of combat ability,” Kakashi said, prompting looks of surprise, before abruptly realizing that a lot of the situation with Naruto involved Kurama, and while the Hokage hadn’t specified how classified the latter was Kakashi was certain that it was "very", and he knew that none of his friends were read in, “Unfortunately the ‘how’ of his skill and why I think Naruto’s going to leave is classified.” 

“It’s because the Kyuubi has woken up and is whispering in his ear, isn’t it?” Iruka asked. 

Both Gai and Anko alarmed at that. Granted Kurama was doing a hell of a lot more than just whispering, but 

“You’re not wrong,” Kakashi said. 

The cat abruptly stopped purring, looked back at the rest of the restaurant, and launched itself under the table a half second before the waitress crossed the boundary with their food. The moment she left the cat jumped back onto Kakashi’s and rolled onto its back, paws in the air and purring. Kakashi gave it an annoyed look and decided that if it was going to use his lap as a bed he was going to use its belly as a table and placed his still steaming bowl of rice on it. The cat froze in surprise then began to curl around the bowl, eagerly sniffing and a look so akin to one of Kakashi’s pack that the jonin _knew_ what the cat wanted. 

Thankfully everyone else was focused on their own food, and the cat's eyes remained fixed on the bowl, so he was able to quickly get some food in his mouth without anyone seeing his face before the cat’s chin cleared the lip of the bowl, prompting Kakashi to gently but firmly press its head back against his leg with the palm of his hand. However the moment he removed his hand the cat sprang back to its former position like it was spring loaded, greedily eyeing his food until he pushed it back down. This repeated several times until, on the fifth time, when he pushed it down it wrapped its forepaws around his hand and began washing it, still purring. 

Kakashi sighed and, ignoring the amused looks from his friends, put the bowl of rice on the table and raised his arm, trying to free his hand from the cat. Unfortunately the cat responded by sinking its’ claws into his shirt and allowing itself to be raised along with his hand, still washing it. Kakashi raised and lowered his arm several times like he was using weights, but the cat refused to let go, prompting laughter from the others at the table. 

Had enough, he used his other hand to free himself, causing the cat to give him a mournful look and sad “mmmrow?” 

“No,” he said firmly, treating the cat like one of his pack that had been naughty. 

The cat drooped melodramaticly, before flipping back over and crawling onto Iruka’s lap and rubbing itself against his chest, loudly purring when the chuunin rubbed its ears as he ate, prompting it to send a smug look back at him. There was no conversation while they ate, as experienced shinobi they instinctively ate as quickly as possible, in the field one never knew when they might be attacked. 

“So,” Iruka said once they finished, “circling back to Naruto, is there anything we can do to help him stay?” 

Kakashi shook his head. 

“The problem is how hated he is. He recently became an empath and the attitude of the civilians and many shinobi is wearing on him. The idea of moving him to one of the satellite towns was floated, but there’s security issues. That said I don’t think Team Seven will be based in Konoha much longer, so this might be our last get together for at least several months, possibly several years.” 

The cat abruptly darted under the table, again about a half second before the waitress arrived to collect their dishes and ask if they wanted a dessert. Shortly after she left _four_ identical blonds cats jumped into everyone’s laps, purring. 

They stared. 

“Uh, Kakashi?” Anko asked, the humans glancing at him. 

Kakashi peaked at the cat with his sharingan, and if it didn’t give him perfect recall he probably would have looked again in confusion as he tried to figure out what he saw. It took him several seconds to piece it together. 

“Naruto, why are you a cat?” He paused. “ _How_ are you a cat?” 

The cats on everyone else’s laps dispersed in a puff of smoke indicative of shadow clones. 

“I got bored of being human,” Naruto purred, “Also I won a bet with Kurama. He thought that you’d notice before you finished eating.” 

“Would this Kurama happen to be an old man with questionable humor?” Anko asked suspiciously. 

Naruto twisted around to look at her. 

“I’ve seen him take that form before, yes, but he's usually a fox.” 

“How are you a cat, Naruto?” Kakashi demanded. 

Naruto gave him an incredulous look. 

“I’m soul bound to a kitsune, how do you think?” 

“Is there a way to learn this skill,” Gai asked, “or is it unique to you?” 

“It can be learned by a normal shinobi,” Naruto hesitantly confirmed, “Though you’ll have to ask Kurama to teach you as the way I learned… isn’t an option for you.” 

“The fox taught you directly.” Kakashi stated. 

“Sharing a mindscape does make it easy for us to share knowledge.” 

“You seem quite comfortable as a cat,” Iruka noted, “How often are you an animal?” 

Naruto subsided a bit. 

“Fairly often,” he quietly admitted, “People don’t hate me when I’m not human.” 

He then leapt from Kakashi’s lap to the floor, meowed 

“See you tomorrow sensei,” 

And wandered off, tail straight up like a flagpole, giving everyone an unfortunate view of his bare rear. 

Kakashi turned back to Gai. 

“I have to deal with antics like that every few days. Still think that your team is as bad as mine?” 

“Thankfully not, my rival.” 

"Hang on," Anko said with a look of dawning horror, "Kurama is the Kyuubi isn't he? I've been locked in a small room with him for weeks!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naruto has spent enough time in non-human forms that his tastes aren't exactly human-standard anymore.
> 
> Naruto had asked civilians about where Jiraya was, not shinobi, which is why he thought he had deserted.
> 
> Naruto: "Don't mind me, I'm just a little Eldritch Abomination."
> 
> Naruto's cannon seal goes from the bottom of his ribs to the top of his hips.
> 
> Isobu created turtle island during a bout of suicidal depression, making a seal to do something that's impossible and using himself to fuel it, thinking that that might be able to kill him. He was extremely surprised to discover the result when he reformed twenty-three years later.
> 
> Unfortunately the declining knowledge of fuuinjutsu in cannon means that it will take years for them to understand the Juubi-era defenses - at least the ones that didn't require sapient sacrifices to power up, even if those sacrifices willingly went to the alters with full knowledge of what would happen to them. They knew that individually they had no chance against the Juubi, but these seals might, and it would allow friends and family to escape. So they offered themselves. Only volunteers were used, and they were given multiple opportunities to back out before they sacrificed themselves. Yes, they were that desperate towards the end.


End file.
